Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-23

the chief, crushing them to death and
encasng their bodies in q veritable
furnace, into which their comrades
were unable to dig for several hours.
Nearly all those who were not killed
outright when the walls fell, were
roasted to death before help could
reach them.
Assistant Chief William Burroughs
and Lieutenant Fitzgerald We're with
the marshal under the canopy when it
fell. receiving specific orders for di-
r"cting the fight against the ever
spreading flames in other quarters and
they went down to their death with
Marshal Horan.N
Other firemen. witnesses of the fate
Of their chief. sought with their bare
hands to drag apart the glowing bricks
and debris which covered the body Of
the chief and his companions. Finding
this a vain effort, they obeyed the di-
rection of Assistant Marshal Seyfer-
Itch and redoubled their efforts to shut
in the spreading area Of flames.
The nre was discovered at about 5
o'clock by q Waterman in the Morris
81 Co. beef house at 43d and LOOMS
SlItttS All dlIiIIiOIiid pipe huISlillG
started spontaneous combustion that
spread so quickly that the Waterman
barely mad turned in the fire alarm
before the flames began bursting from
the building.
Fire Marshal Koran, who was at his
home on the West Side. hurried to the
scene in his automobile. His assist
ants who had reached the scene earlier
had abandoned the effort to save the
beef house and were endeavcring to
head off the rush of fire toward other
buildings
Flames We're billowing out of several
arrived and the inferno was blistering
the hands and faces of the firemen.
The shelter of the wooden awning
which later became the destroyer Of
a score of lives. was sought by fire
men led by Koran Burroughs and
Fitzgerald. On top of the canopy an
other group of firemen still played
streams OF water. Suddenly Lieut..
Joseph Mackey, leader of the band
there. felt the wall going and shouted
q warning to those beneath. He
death but the men below the canopy
were walled in by the collapsing
bricks.
Meanwhile. firemen who knew moth
ing of this. augmented by constantly
arriving aids. took their stand at
building after building. only to be
driven back each time. blistered and
scalded. Assistant Marshal Seyfer-
Itch. on whom now lay the command,
realizing the futility of saving proper
ty then ablaze, ordered his men to
fall back.
The assistant marshal acknowledged
at 10.15 that the whole stock yards
district was in danger.
We've got no water here and we
can do nothing effectively" he said.
but we've got to stick out there and
head off that fire. if 1t takes every man
in the department.
Capt H. II. Fuchs of Engine Co. %,
who had just left Marshal Koran with
orders for his company. walked out
from under the fatal canopy just as
it crushed out the lives behind him.
Blackened and blistered, he was the
only man left of his crew.
Steady streams of water had some
what cooled the fallen wall an hour
after it had buried its victims and
Scyferlich declared at 1890 A. NJ. that
he heard a voice. Firemen tore at
the pile Of debris with bare hands.
axes and poles in hope that some Of
the men were still alive. Four bodies
were recovered in a few minutes. They
were:
Joseph Murrawoski, pipesman; Pat
rick Z. Collins, engine captain; Dennis
Doyle. engine captain; unidentified
pipeman.
Coroner Hoffman arrived early and
a coroners jury. AS the
bodies were brought out the
coroner's men joined the hundreds Of
volunteers who were aiding the fire.
men.
Many devices for clearing away the
pile Of smouldering wreckage above the
huddled mass of dead were sent to the
spot. a wrecking engine on the Chi
caro & Eastern Illinois Railroad
brought derrick A road schaper
scooped up great masses of bricks and
some of the firemen energetically push
ed the great scoop into the brick heap,
Continued on Page Twelve.)