The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-01-29
SIXTY PERISH IN
LAKE CRIB FIRE.
Structure Becomes Trap Of
Solid Flame.
EXPLOSION IS THE CAUSE

Communication With the Burning
Pen Is Cut OFF by the Fire While One
of the Doomed Men IS Phonins a
Call for HeIp-Many Jump Into Icy
Waters In Hope of Being Picked
Up-Horrcr Witnessed by Scores
Who Are Unable to Help.
Sixty workmen lost their lives at
Chicago and more than score We're in
jured in fire which destroyed the in
termediate crib, mile and half off
Seventy-first street, used by George
w. jackson, the contractor, in the CON
struction of a new water tunnel.
The flames broke out at about s
o'clock. Within a few minutes 6. tele.
phone message was received at the Of.
fees on shore.
"The crib is on fire. For Gods sake
send help at once or the entire crew
of us will he burned alive. The
tug
This was what a man said over the
phone, speaking from the crib. Then
the telephone wire burned off and the
men on shore heard no more.
Ninety Men on the Structure.
Ninety men, who lived at the crib
and worked in shifts, were on the
structure when the fire broke out.
Many of these are unaccounted for.
Twenty-six, I'll injured, were res
cued by the tug T. T. Morford, which
was stationed near the crib, and
brought to the Wells street bridge,
whence they were taken to hospitals
Confined in a fiery prison, with all
means Of communication with the
shore cut off and the icy waters of
Lake Michigan all about them, the
workmen made a desperate fight for
their lives, which was witnessed by
crowds on the shore.
AS soon as the alarm was given
prompt measures of relief were taken,
hut the quick spread of the flames IN
the wooden structure and the distance
to be- covered made these efforts all
but useless
Starts from Powder Explosion.
The fire originated in the powder
magazine OH the first landing. Many
of the employees were asleep in hunks,
and others were just going to work,
when sheet of flame broke through
the building.
Many were burned to death before
they could reach the doors. Others,
their clothes aflame, leaped into the
icy waters regardless of the results.
A number, unable to swim, sank be-
meath the surface. Others swan to
cakes of ice to support themselves un-
til the arrival of relief.
Thinks 100 May Be Dead.
Scenes Of grief were enacted at the
offices of the Sewer and Tunnel Min
ers' association, III Ewing street.
Women and children relatives of the
victims of the crib disaster applied to
President Joseph D'Audrea for news of
the missing.
Il have been doing everything posi-
BILE to check up the list of workmen
at the crib, said President D'Andrea.
According to my figures now there
were about It's men working at the
crib at the time the fire started.
think the dead will number probably
100.
Many men who are missing are at
the bottom Of the lake, while others
are so badly mutilated that they will
never be identified
Shifting the Blame.
While the dead were being identified
by wives, children and friends and the
injured were being cared for by doc
tors, public officials shifted RESPONSE.
bility for the catastrophe from one
to the other.
City and federal authorities agreed
that no precautionary measures ever
have been taken against such an acci-
dent.
Although the erection of steel
structure might have served as a pro-
lection against fire, it appears that this
was not required of the contractors,
and that no effort ever was made to
inspect the frame building at the crib.