The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-05-09
IN A FIRE TRAP.
Three Hundred Girls Hemmed
in by Flames.
Nearly All Escape by Exercise
of Fire Drill.
SIX STORY BUILDING,
Entirely Destroyed in a Few
Hours in Kansas City.
Two Persons Dead and Several
Are Injured.
OCCUPIED BY ARTISTS.
Upper Stories Filled With
Painters and Musicians.
Fireman Carries Woman From
Fifth Story Window.
Destroyed in a Few
Hours in Kansas City.
Two Persons Dead and Several
Are Injured.
OCCUPIED BY ARTISTS.
Upper Stories Filled With
Painters and Musicians.
Fireman Carries Woman From
Fifth Story Window.

| Kansas City, May 9.-The Universal
ty building at the northwest corner of
Ninth and Locust streets, was totally
! destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon,
causing loss of $125, 900 on the building
and resulting in the death of Professor
Georges De Mare, head of the art de-
partment in Central high school, who
jumped or fell from a window on the
fourth floor of the burning building.
The body of Miss Aurora Wittebort
is supposed to be in the ruins.
The loss to the various tenants can
not be known with any degree of def
nfteness for some time. With the excep-
tion OF Montgomery Ward & Co, who
occupied the first two floors, most Of
the occupants of the building were
musicians and artists. The Radford
pharmacy occupied the room at the cor
ner of Ninth and Locust, and the Kin
dergarten Supply company occupied the
room Immediately to the west of the
pharmacy.
There were many sensational escapes
and displays of heroism, the most nota-
bic being the rescue of Miss S. Ellen
Barnes, a music teacher, by Fireman
Charles Braun.
Death by suffocation is thought to
have been the fate of Miss Aurora
Wittebort, an artist who had an office
in the fifth floor of the building. Miss
Wittebort made her home in the build
ing, and was there when the fire start
ed. She was last seen by Miss Barnes
just as Professor de Mare jumped to
his death. She is thought to be the wo-
man Mr.. Farrell saw with de Mare as
he CROPPED his way through the smoke to
safety. De Mare leaped to death from
a window leading out of her studio.
Cleveland Laid Cornerstone.
The building was constructed nearly
twenty years ago for the Y. NJ. c. A.
Grover Cleveland laying the corner
stone in 1887 during his first term as
president. 1t cost $4,000 and after the
Y M. c. A. was compelled to relinquish
it the building passed into the possess
sion of the Pepper estate, being in turn
sold to the Sunny Slope Realty com
pany. There was an insurance Of $72,-
900 on the structure.
The fire started in a pile of 5000
pounds of hemp rope, which was
stored in the pit of the building. I'm
til recently the Kansas City Athletic
club had occupied the premises and it
had made the basement and main
floor single room. Around this
room ran balcony. Montgomery
Ward & Co. were occupying the room
and in it they had a pile of hemp
stored for immediate use. There
were some of the 800 girls the mail
order house employed in the Kansas
City general offices within two feet Of
the rope. and scores of them within
sight. Immediately on hearing the
sound of the cracking and seeing the
little jets of smoke at the same mo-
ment the girls began to tell each 9TH
er there was a fire, and precipitousiy
prepared to leave the place. o. Q.
Massey and J. NJ. Miller, clerks. at the
same time made a rush for the start
Despite their efforts the fire gained on
them, jets coming from twenty parts
of the pile. A rumor that some one
had stepped on a match, igniting it, Is
.I-A- II
dence given by a dozen or more clerks
who were sitting in the pit where the
hemp blazed.
While Henderson, Massey and Mill
er were trying to stamp the fire out,
Mrs. Lucille Baker, in charge of the
squad in that particular room, began
getting her forty subordinates out Of
the place. Manager w. P. Walker
had 200 girls at work in what once
was the swimming pool. Their only
avenue of escape was TO walk toward
the burning hemp and up a temporary
staircase. In the most amazing man
ner, the manager succeeded in getting
the clerks to stand perfectly still until
they could march out of the place in
twos, and in that manner he got every
one of the 200 out of the pit and to
the street level without the slightest
confusion. There was every possibility
of a jam at the staircase. which could
only have resulted in a great loss of
life.
The Injured.
Miss Ella Barnes. room SIG; faint
ed.
Countess Alexandria Andrevna
Blumberg; cut and bruised; condition
taken to the Swedish hos
pital.
Mrs Eva S. Boyle of Sheridan, Mo-;
overcome by smoke, left ankle
sprained and probably internal in
juries.
E. w. Brown. Sc years old. a car
penter of 80 East Eleventh street;
hands burned. left ankle dislocated
and right ankle sprained.
Gottleib Federlin of Eighth street
and Woodlawn avenue; overcome by
smoke.
Mrs w. o. Marshall, negro janitor;
an ankle sprained.
Lawrence M. Reeder, a fireman of
1710 Prospect avenue; overcome by
smoke, face burned and left arm In
jured.
DR.. Avis Z. Smith. Pepper building:
bruised.
Miss Maud Speer. elocution teach
er OF 1857 Penn street; overcome by
smoke.
August Weber. piano tuner. room
5e7; overcome by smoke.
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