Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-05-12
Early Blaze in Old Aveline Hos
telry in Fort Wayne,
Indiana.
SCENES OF HORROR FOLLOW.
Scores Flee in Night Robes-Militia-
men Search Ruins for
Bodies.

De missing and sixteen We're injured.
The dead:
f. ]. Ellis, 6121 Monroe avenue, Chi
cago; salesman for Carson, Prize, Scott
s. Co
Morris Hirsch, Chicago: salesman for
Pacific Coast Borax Company; brother
of Isaac Hirsch, Howard Club, Chicago.
j. b. Miller. Sheboygan. Wis: travel
ing man for Landow & Brown, garment
manufacturers of Pittsburg.
Miss Mary Burkett. Mishawaka, Ind ::
assistant matron of Orphans Home.
Miss Sarah Hathaway. agent for Or
phans' Home at Mishawaha
William A. Pitcher. Duluth: travelling
man for Bowser oil tank works of Fort
Wayne
Robert s. Johnson, Pana, H.: travel
ing man for Watson Plummer Shoe Com
pany. Chicago.
Joseph W. Deviney, Camden. \. j..
salesman for Crawford & Lehman, Phila-
delphia.
Unidentified man. supposed to be hotel
porter named Burke.
Unidentified woman.
The known missing:
Frank Baxter. attorney, Auburn, Ind.
Companion of Baxter.
f.. b. Atty, Wabash, Ind
Charles Benjamin. salesman for De-
troit Neckwear Company, Detroit. Mich.
r. E. I'ribble, ranch owner, Dalhart,
Texas.
The complete destruction of the in
terror of the hotel made ,de work Of
recovering bodies a task of extreme
difficulty. A mass of eharred wood,
bricks and twisted Orders was piled
up between the bare walls to the sec
ond story. This had to be removed,
piece by piece, before the roll of the
dead could be completed. Infantry
Company ID and Battery b Of the In
diana National Guard aided the fire
and police forces to clear away the
debris.
The fire was discovered at 80 Sun
day morning in the elevator shaft by
Night Clerk Ralph Hipkins. He rushed
to the upper floors alarming the guests,
until the flames, which had spread with
appalling rapidity, drove him back.
Hotel Burns Like finder.
The hotel was erected half a century
ago, and the woodwork was dry as tin
der. 1t burned like matchwood, and
within few minutes from che time the
fire was discovered the whole interior
of the hotel was mass of flames that
filled the corridors and rooms with suf-
locating clouds of smoke and laid fiery
barriers across all means of egress save
the windows. The fire department res
cued many with ladders. but some, fren-
zied by the onward rush of the flames,
leaped from high windows to the paved
street
r. S. Johnson, Pana. H.. jumped
from the fifth story His body struck
a balcony and bounded far into the
street. lie was crushed and bleed
ing mass when picked up and died
short time later in st. Joseph's Hos
pital
Soon the flames broke from the win
dows and curled about the fire escapes.
A number braved the flames and made
their way through smoke and Ere down
the iron stairways.
Many Thrilling Escapes.
There were many thrilling escapes.
Claude H. VarDell of the Fort Wayne
baseball team, his sister Mrs. John
Hendricks. and John Hendricks, Chi
cago, manager of the Fort Wayne team,
together with their 5-year-old son, bare
ly escaped with their lives Varnell
lost all his personal belonging, valued
at several thousand dollars. Hendricks,
with his wife ahead of him and his boy
in his arms. was descending the fire
escape from the fifth floor. At the third
floor the fire broke out below them. He
swung Mrs Hendricks over the railing
and she dropped to the balcony of the
story below. He then dropped his son
into the waiting arms of his wife, and
all made their way to the ground.
The New Aveline Hotel was a six
story building of brick, in the business
center of the city. Its erection was
begun in 1852. but it was not completed
until several years later. In 1895 the
building was extensively remodeled and
two stories were added. The hotel and
furnishings were valued at $4,000
Throughout the framework of the
interior was of wood, Tried like finder
from a half century's seasoning, and it
burned with great rapidity. Within
quarter of an hour from the time the
IRE was discovered in the elevator
shaft practically the entire building was
wrapped in flames. The whole interior
became a roaring furnace, and from
basement to roof all was blazing AT
once. In rapid succession the floors
fell to the basement. carrying their toll
OF dead
other Losses I'm Block.
Other occupants of the hotel block
and their losses are:
Jones & Stevens. proprietors hotel.
personal, 5000.
G. Fl. Brown, saloon, $4,000.
C. B. Woodwork & Co. drugs, $1,000
Postal Telegraph Company. $1,000.
Strauss Bros. bankers, $1,000.
George Streicher, barber shop. $500.
Lee WINS, cigar and news stand,
$4,000.
Bass Block. adjoining hotel. $500.
All losses in the hotel block save the
Strauss bank we're total. The bank
vaults are intact. Losses are fully in
sured
The eighty-eishfh birthday Of D. K