Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-22
BLAME FOR CRIB FIRE
EmpIoye Carried a Lighted
Torch Into Powder House.
FULTZ ESCAPED ALIVE
Now in Hospital Under Guard for
Coroner's Inquest.
STORY IS TOLD BY COMPANION
Miller Says to Prevent Explosion
Hose Was Not Used-Smoke
Blocked Egress.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO, January 22-That careless
employe. going into the dynamite house
with lighted torch, caused the fire In
the intermediate water crib in Lake Mich
igan, which resulted in the loss of prob
ably seventy lives Monday, was establish
ed to fair degree of accuracy this morn
ing by Acting Chief of Police Schuettler.
The responsibility for this was placed
seemingly upon Nathan Fultz. colored
employee, who was the last man taken out
alive from the tunnel under the lake.
Logan Miller, another colored man, who
escaped, told the story which the police
cause Of the fire.
MllerS story was corrobOrated by Will
liam Summers. AS a result Fultz will be
watched at the hospital by a policeman
until he is able to leave it. Then, with
Miller and Summers. he will be turned
over to the coroner for further investiga-
ton.
Three Know How Fire Started.
Miller. Summers and Fultz are the only
living persons who can tell just how the
fire started and all about it, said Acting
Chief schuettler. They will be guarded
against being talked with and from leav-
ing the city before the inquest
Some survivors told the police amazing
stories of their battles for life and termed
their escape from the burning crib as
marvellous. Miller's testimony is the most
valuable that has been received from any
source.
He is a drill runner. who began work
at the tunnel last Tuesday. Wednesday
morning he met FultZ, he said, at the top
of the shaft. He was just coming from
work and Fultz was preparing to go into
the tunnel.
A slight explosion. which might have
been caused, he thinks, by the overhead
ing of the steam coils that ran through
the room where the dynamite was stored,
or might have come from the tunnel,
blew out the torch he was carrying. He
handed the torch to Fultz.
Futz relighted it and remarked that
there was not enough powder for the blast
he wanted. Fultz turned and went into
the powder room with the lighted torch.
Blaze Started in Powder House.
The blaze started in the powder house,
he explained. Il stood near the powder
room and a man opened the door. The
blaze came right up. 1 knew there was
nothing burning three minutes before.
They had steam pipes in the powder
house to thaw the powder OUT
There was so much smoke we could
not see how to get out" he said. There
was only one escape, and that was the
muck hole. We could not use the hose,
because if powder is hit with water it will
explode If it is hot. Then nobody would
have been saved. They did the best they
could"
II did not think there was chance for
me, but l got out the window and chung
to the ice until the tug picked me up"
Relatives of Dead to Confer.
CHICAGO. January 22.-A conference of
relatives Of the men who were killed in
the burning of the temporary crib in the
lake last Monday was held at South Chi
cago today to determine what religious
services should be held for the dead.
A suggestion was made that a theater
be obtained, in which clergymen of all de-
nominations might speak Another plan
suggested was that all the bodies be
taken first to a Protestant and then to a
Catholic church.