Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1910-12-29
DISASTROUS FIRES IN THREE Cities
acHsEF KORAN, TWO ASSISTANT
,C4JEFS AND THIRTY FlREMEN
~ ARE CAUGHT UNDER A
FALLING CANOPY.
IN CHICAGO ST0CyYAFD
Explosion of an Ammonia Pipe in Beef
House of Nelson. Morris G Co.
Causes Spontaneous Com
bustion.-Coroners Jury
Watches the Fire.

Watches the Fire.
Chicago, Illinois. Fire Marshal
James Koran and twenty-five fire
men and two other men We're killed
and forty others were injured in a
fire which caused an estimated
s1,50e,000 damage and which still
threatens the whole of Chicago's great
stoGkyards.
A wooden canopy fell from the beef
house of Norris & Co, where the fire
started, carrying with it tons of red
hot bricks and debris upon two COM
panies of firemen and the chief, crush
ing Them to death 1t held their
Dadlef, in a veritable furnace into
which their comrades were unable to
dig, go that practically all those who
were not killed outright when the
walls fell were burned to death.
Assistant Chief William Burroughs
and Lieut.. Fitzgerald were with Chief
Haran under the trail canopy when it
felEand went down to their death with
their leader.
Claw Fiercely at Hot Bricks.
Other f1remen, witnesses of the dis
aktep, deserted the other parts of the
blazing structure and, rushing to the
pyre, sought with their bare hands to
drag apart the glowing bricks and de-
bras to save at least the body of their
chief and his Inflated comrades. Find
ing this vain effort they obeyed
again the direction of Assistant Mar
shall Seyfeflich and redoubled their
efforts to shut in the spreading area
of destruction.
The blaze was discovered by a
Waterman in the Morris & Co. beef
house, Forty-third and Loomis streets.
An ammonia pipe, bursting, started
spontaneous combustion that spread
so quickly the Waterman barely had
turned in the fire alarm before the
&ames burst from the building
Seek Shelter Under Awning.
The awning which later became the
destroyer of score of lives seemed
10 Gf1e- q shelter from the sweltering
waves Of heat that radated from the
Are with blistering effect Under this
the III fated crews fled for shelter. led
by Aeran. Burroughs and FITZGERALD.
eoToner's Jury Watches Fire.
SssrOner Hoffman arrived early and
1RpRAelled coroner's jury, which sat
III hprrif1ed silence watching the de-
-sahebaeg flames. AS the recovered
hadAes were brought out, mangled,
on 81 fH1
itsef forgot it's duty of inquiry and
Joined with feverish efforts the hun
dEedg OF civilians who We're lending
band to the tiremen
S80A the newspaper extras on the
streets in all parts of the city carried
the news of danger or death that had
wished the tiremen. and relatives and
friends of those firemen known to be
on duty went in throngs to the fire
0na at her Ashland boulevard home
Mrs. Koran, wife of the marshal
Learned she was widow, and disbe-
hexhng until assured by the newspaper
reporters, she swooned in the midst of
her 1DsH little children. She was pros
traAe1 and has required medical atten-
tiaA.
A wxecking engine on the Chicago
nAa Eastern Illinois railroad brought
derrick, topping obstructing box
cSas into the ditch as it came A road
so<aper. attached to one of the cables,
asnsDed up great masses of brick and
sa0r1ag firemen savagely pushed the
gnas4 scoop into the brick heap in
hope Of reaching the sufferers, whose
grSane could be heard.
Fell at Their Posts.
Long before noon Assistant Marshal
Hev1osNch. ON his round of the fire
Aseas began to And here and there
prone figures where before brave men
ms stsOd In the breath of the flames,
senEiy holding their own. They had
bes2 overcome and their companions
hEd been unable to aid them. Some,
recovering, started in anew to stay
She progress of the flames, but their
oaores were too feeble to be of use.
OF the 25 men killed, the bodies of
is, issiuding that of Chief Koran, have
been taken from the ruins The list
of the dead includes the chief, assis-
tad1 chief, two captains, five lieuten-
ants, Is city tiremen, two private fire
men and railroad employee