The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-04-21
HOTEL BURNED
Guests in the Hotel Barely Escaped
Being Burned Alive-Origin Of
Fire Unknown.

Pukwana, S. D., April Especial:
The one hotel building in Pukwana
was burned to the ground this morn
ing, the fire being first discovered at
about 2 o'clock. Just how the fire or
iginated could not be ascertained. al
though it is thought that it started in
the rear of the kitchen, for that part
of the house fell in first. 1t seemed
an incredible short time before the
entire structure was reduced to
ashes.
The fire had made great headway
before it was discovered, and the
guests in the building barely had time
to save themselves not to mention any
of their clothing. There we're four
travelling men stopping at the hotel.
two or three %boarders, and with Land
lord Marlett and his wife and the help
OF the house constituted these who
were nearly caught in the trap. Il.
Fred Anderson, of Sioux City. per-
haps had the narrowest escape of any
of the guests. He was sleeping on
the second floor and had not been
awakened by anybody in the house
until the building was nearly ready
to fall in. He said that he heard a i
faint shout which woke him from a
deep sleep. when l awoke, said Mr.
Anderson, "the room was full of
smoke and at first l thought it was
a cyclone coming. 1 thought l could
hear the roar of the wind, but instead
OF that 1t was the roar of the flames
IN the room below and were eating
their way into my room. l slipped my
feet into my shoes, grabbed my
clothes and grip and threw them out
OF the window. I crawled through .he
window and letting myself down by
my hands l dropped to the ground,
perhaps a distance of 10 to 10 feet,
In the fall l injured by back and
sprained my ankle. This was due to
my feet striking a hole in the ground.
In another minute it would have been
too late for me, for as 1 dropped from
the window ledge l heard the floor
OF my room fall in, and l would have
been found among the ashes in the
morning. l lost my sample cases, and
some other v%aluables amounting to
about $780,"
Mr.. Anderson left for his home on
the morning train.
The fire consumed the hotel so
quickly that it was impossible to save
anything, the guests losing about
everything they possessed; while the
help of the house and the proprietor
and his wife got out with barely
felothes to themselves. None of
the rooms of the hotel were equip
ped with a fire escape rope as ere
CURED by law, and had they been so
equipped escape from the building
would have been much easier. The
hotel was owned by John Stransky,
and is rather an old structure, but
was, improved and opened about six
months ago. No other guests were in
iIured.
|Fa7 The drug store owned by L. B. Ash,
bEadjoining the. hotel was also destroy
red, including the entire stock Of
drugs. His loss is placed at $4,000.
The people of the town got out and
fought the fire the best they could
under the circumstances, and snc-
eeeded in stopping the flames after
burning the drug store
Pukwana has been unfortunate in
the past year or two, since when it
was nearly destroyed by a cyclone
and later a large livery barn was
burned together with a number Of
head of horses and many vehicles.
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