Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-28
Special Dispatch to The Star.

BUFFALO,, N. Y, January 8.-The
Seneca building, an eight-story brick struc-
ture at 100 Seneca street, was destroyed by
ing. For time all the manufacturing
section Of Buffalo lying Immediately to the
north of the New York Centraps Exchange
street station was threatened.
The Brozel Hotel which is separated from
the burned building by a narrow street,
was licked by the flames but escaped in
jury. All the guests however, left the
hotel.
The temperature was close to zero and
the fremen had a desperate fight up to 10
O'Clock, when they finally got the fire under
control. The loss is estimated at about
$500 900, the heaviest losses falling on the
manufacturing plants in the burned dis
trict At 1890 o'clock, when some Of the
flremen had departed, the floors in the
burned structure suddenly gave way and
fell to the basement. This weakened the
walls, and a minute or two later the east
wall Of the building, which projected four
stories above the adjoining building, a
warehouse. toppled over, carrying down all
the floors Of the warehouse.
Buried in the Ruins.
Firemen who were members of engine
company 8, were at work on the top floor
of this warehouse directly under the roof,
and when the roof broke beneath the weight
OF the falling wall, they were buried under
the ruins. and some were hurled into the
basement of the warehouse.
Work of rescue was begun at once, and
this afternoon 1t Is believed that William
]. Naughton, John r. Henkey and Stephen
J. Megan are dead. They are supposed to
be buried under twenty feet of debris.
The injured are:
Capt. Michael Haggerty, engine 8, head
injured. knee crushed and spine injured.
Lieut.. ]. Y. Malloy, engine 10, ankle bro
ken, and badly bruised.
Fireman Bunce, engine 8, head injured.
Fireman Bensinger, engine 4, ankle
sprained.
Fireman Yaeger, engine 4, spine wrenched.
Several fremen were treated for minor in
juries, but returned to the work of rescuing
their comrades.
The fire was first discovered by the
Waterman in the basement of the main
DullQlnS. he eXtlnSulSneQ u plaZe III some
rags, and continued on his rounds. ihe
rags again became ignited, however, and
the building quickly caught fire. A passer-
by saw flames bursting from the rear Of the
main building and sounded the alarm. The
automatic sprinklers with which the build
ing was equipped failed to work properly,
and by the time the firemen arrived the
flames had spread so rapidly that it was
impossible to save the plant
Only the entire absence Of wind pre-
vented the nre from communicating to
other buildings, as the plant stood in the
heart Of the congested business district.
with many wooden buildings near by. AS
soon as 1t was seen that the Phelps plant
was doomed, the fremen turned their atten-
ton mainly to the work of saving sur
rounding structures which they wet down
thoroughly. AS none but the Waterman
was in any Of the buildings when the fire
broke out at an early hour, and he had
ample time to get out, there were no fatali-
ties and the firemen escaped injury.
All the buildings. containing a large
amount of valuable machinery, including
expensive color presses, were burned out.
Herbert Myrick of the company stated that
the total loss on buildings, machinery and
stock paper would be very nearly 81 coo 600,
practically covered by insurance. About 450
persons are thrown out of work by the de-
struction of the plant, which was one of
the finest of its kind In New England.