The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1910-12-22
Especial from United Press,

Chicago, Dec. 22.-Thirty to thirty
i've firemen are believed to be deac
here, today. 10 bodies have been re-
coveredSand at least a score are serf
ously, several fatally injured througf
a fire which destroyed the big bee
storage house of Nelson, Morris s
Company and for a time threatened
20 wipe out the whole Chicago stock
yards.
Foremost among the victims of the
fire was the head of the Chicago Fire
Department, Chief James Horan
who, with his second assistant, Will
liam Burroughs and more than q
core Of men, were killed when q
terrific explosion of ammonia tore of
the roof of the burning structure
forcing out it's walls and trapping the
fire chief and. his party under or
overhanging canopy where they Were
coasted to death while rescuers vain
ly fought the gusts of flames. Driven
back by the wall Of fire, the engine
companies and other organizations
which from all over the city had an
swered the repeated alarms, fought
desperately to save their comrades
but so hot were the flames that all
efforts were fruitless. The cessation
of screams and groans from the i'm
prisoned men told that the last spark
of life had flown.
confla grafton sufficiently to allow sey-
eral bodies to be taken from the ruin
until the workers were forced bacl;
by fresh outbursts of flame. Then
the tallow plant adjoining the beet
house. caught fire and only after ar
struction of the whole Morris plant
and possibly of the whole stockyards
averted.
No sooner were the flames got un-
der control, early this afternoon, than
the fire fighters again turned to the
work of recovering the bodies of theif
comrades. Digging furiously among
the still smoking ruins, one after an
other the bodies of the victims were
brought out. 1t is not believed thai
an accurate list of the dead will be
,btainable until late tonight or early
tomorrow.
How death came to Chief Horan
and his fire fighters was told by
Lieutenant Joseph Mackey, driver for
the dead fire chief, who suffered {,
broken leg.
Inside the building" Mackey said.
there were a number of men fight
ing the fire and outside, near the
wall, Fire Chief Horan and | were
standing talking near the chiefs auto.
Lieutenant James Fitzgerald, OF En-
zine Company No. 23, had just come
up for orders when there was ter
rifle explosion the whole roof OF tha
building was blown off and the wall
fell out, burying a score of the men
working outside it.
'I saw Chief Koran and Fitzgerald
70 down into the ruins and l was
hurled against a freight car nearby
snd my leg broken. Inside the build,
ing the explosion doubtless liberated
ne fumes of ammYhia and the fall
ing roof crushed the men who were
made senseless by the gas.
"Outside, as 1 was dragged to safe-
ty by rescuers, I could hear the
yroans and cries of the men buried
under the wall, which, falling on a
sort of canopy, pinned them dowu
lmid the mass of timbers where they
~oasted while the gush of flames
from the building drove all rescuers
back"
At IL o'clock the work of digging
for the victims was abandoned for a
second time and every effort resGln-
ed to quell the flames which broke
,ut anew. At that hour ten bod
les in all had been recovered. Just
how many perished is not known bat
the total is variously estimated from
20 to 80.
How the fatal fire started and how
he explosion caused its spread. after
t was thought to be under control
was told by Captain j. T. Champagne.
of an insurance patrol stationed in the
stockyards:
1--WE got the first alarm shortly after
{ o'clock" he said. land were at the
nlant a minute later. 1t wasn't much
IF fire then and if he would have
got water at once we would have been
I'll right but the Nigh pressure pipes
in the Morris plant were cut off in the
easements to prevent freezing. 1t was
1T least two minutes before we got he
t-o+or- turned on
Apparently we had the flames un-
Ter control in a short time. but just
when we thought everything was all
light there was a terrific explosion in
he south end OF the beef cooler which
ore off that end of the roof and about
so feet of the east wall. There were
a lot of men working on top and un-