Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-22
DEATH LIST AT
LAKE CRIB FIRE
MAY REACH 100
ALREADY az BODIES ARE AT
CITY M0RGUE
CLAIMED 175 MEN WERE WORK.
ING IN TUNNEL
Origin of Fire Is Mystery-Responsi-
biIity for Accident Is Shifted
from One Department to
Another
IRv Associated Press.1


CHICAGO, Jan. GA thick, gray
mist has settled over the city and lent
the last touch necessary to present the
gloom of the scene in the city morgue
where the bodies of the victims of yes
rday's crib fire lay.
Inside the undertaking rooms, like
the granary of some terrible Blue
Beard, rested forty-seven sacks, each
containing an unrecognizable body-in
many cases only the torso-of those
who met death in the charnel house in
the lake.
A possibility that the list of dead in
yesterdays tragedy at the intermediate
crib in Lake Michigan may reach sixty
six was expressed today by Coroner
Hoffman.
There are forty-seven bodies at the
morgue, which corresponds with the
number reported missing by the jack
son company. But the cOmpany'S pay
roll was incomplete, and inquiries have
been received for many whose names
were not on the pay rolls, but who were
said by relatives to have been working
the crib by the day.
OF the thirty-nine injured who were
rescued, the condition Of five is said
to be serious
President Joe D. Andrews, president
of the Tunnel and Miners association,
expressed the fear today that the death
list may reach 100.
175 Men Worked at Crib
"I am told," he said, that there were
abouC 175 men working at the crib
when the fire started. If this proves
true the dead easily will reach 100
Many of the missing men are undOubt-
lily at the bottom of the lake, and
their bodies will probably be never re-
liz
an investigation"
Responsibility for the accident is be-
ing shifted rapidly from one depart
ment of the public service to another
"The United States engineers office
issued a permit for the erection of the
crib, but we merely see to it that build
ings of thi. kind do not obstruct navi-
gation,'' said the chief clerk of the
United States engineers office.
"My department supervised the work
done at the crib to see that it was
carried out in compliance with the
term of the city's contract That was
the extent of our inspection" is the
statement Of the city engineer.
''The building department sent no in
spectors to the intermediate crib be-
cause it has no jurisdiction over build
ings erected in the lake, or, if it has
such jurisdiction I never heard of 1t, >"
caid the building commissioner.
at is not the duty of the fire de-
partment to inspect such structures as
the intermediate crib declared the
fire chief "In this case we never were
called on by the building department
to do So"
Public Works Responsible
''The public works department of the
city is responsible for such a struc-
ture," said the deputy building COM
missioner. ''It was specified in the con-
tract with the George w. Jackson COM
pany that precautions should be taken
against fire. There was no specification
that the structure be of steel"
''It would be absolutely impossible
for me to erect a steel crib for tenn
porary purposes unless it was paid for
by the city," said, George w. Jackson
of the construction company.
'If the city had been willing to pay
for a steel intermediary crib [ certainly
would have had no objections to erect
ing it,"
Criminal prosecution of those respon-
sible for the condition at the crib is
threatened.
Among the charges being made by
the survivors are the following:
''That but little fire apparatus was
kept on hand; that the fire extinguish-
ers about the place were useless; that
the dynamite was carelessly handled
and that on several occasions explo-
sions were narrowly averted; that the
building was poorly constructed and
was a veritable fire trap; that the
blasts in the tunnel rocked and swayed
the structure almost as though it was a
piece of paper; that the only methods
of escape in case of fire was the aerial
tramway which carried but few per-
sons at a time, and was slow in opera
ton"
Theories as to the cause of the dis
aster are being formed. Here is one:
Bedbugs had infested the structure
and taken UP their habitations in the
cracks between the pine boards. A
negro workman with the idea of abat-
ing the nuisance had secured gasoline
and poured it into the cracks. The gas
oline in some way, possibly from the
red hot stoves that warmed the build
ing, became ignited, with the result
that the whole structure burst, into
flames.