Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-12-27
CHIEF KORAN, TWO ASSISTANT
CHIEFS AND THIRTY FiREMEN
ARE CAUGHT UNDER A
FALLING CANOPY.
DAMAGE WILL REACH
MILLION AND A HALF
Explosion Of an Ammonia Pipe In Beet
House Of Nelson, Morris 4 Go.
Causes Spontaneous Com
bustion.-coroner's Jury
Watches the Fire.

Chicago, Dec. 23.-Fire Marsha
James Koran and twenty-five f1re
men and two other men were killed
and forty others were injured In
fire which caused an estimated
31,5OO,000 damage and which still
threatens the whole of Chicagos great
stockyards.
A wooden canopy fell from the beef
house of Morris & Co., where the f1re
started, carrying with 1t tons OF red
hot bricks and debris upon two com
panies of firemen and the chief, crush
ing them to death. 1t held theiI
bodies in q veritable furnace into
which their comrades we're unable to
dir. 90 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
Aoran under the frail canopy when 1t
fell and went down to their death with
their leader.
Claw FiercsIy at Hot Bricks.
Other flremen, witnesses Of the die
aster, 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.
bris to save at least the body of their
chief and his Inflated comrades. Find
ing this a vain effort they obeyed
again the direction Of Assistant Mar
shall Seyferlich 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
flames burst from the building.
Crosses City to Meet Death.
Fire Marshal Koran, at his home on
the West side, heard the second call
for fire apparatus and dashed to the
stockyards-and to his death-in his
| automobile.
BY the time Of his arrival his as
sistants, who had reached the scene
earlier, had abandoned the effort to
save the beef house, and were endeav-
oring to head off the rush Of fire to.
wards other buildings. Flames were
billowing out of several structures
near by when the marshal arrived,
and the inferno was blistering the
hands and faces of the pipeman and
truckmen who were sticking by their
positions under the encouragement of
their commanders. who, themselves,
we're burned and blistered by the
/ fierce heat.
Seek Shelter Under Awning.
The awning which later became the
destroyer of a score of lives seemed
to offer a shelter from the sweltering
waves of heat that radiated from the
fire with blistering effect. Under this
the i'll fated crews fled for shelter, led
by Koran, Burroughs and Fitzgerald.
Chief Hears Voice in Ruins.
Steady streams of water from one
whole fire company with which Sey-
ferlich tried to drench the fatal pyre
had cooled it to some extent an hour
after the fire had come onto the help
less victims. Seyrelich, unable to be-
take himself far from the mass under
which his superior and his brave COM
rades lay, declared he heard a voice.
A shouted command brought another
detachment of firemen from nearby
posts, who tore at the pile of debris
with bare hands, axes and poles in
feverish hope that some of the fated
crew still were alive. Four bodies were
recovered in few minutes. They
were: Joseph Muraweski, pipeman;
Patrick E. Collins, captain Engine COM
pany SO; Dennis Doyle. captain Engine
company 80, and an unidentified pipe
man.
Coroner's Jury Watches Fire.
Coroner Hoffman arrived early and
impanelled coroner's Jury, which sat
in Mortified silence watching the de-
vourng flames. As the recovered
bodies were brought out. mangled.
scorched, shapeless masses. the jury
itself forgot its duty of inquiry and
joined with feverish efforts the hun
dreds of civilians who were lending .
hand to the firemen.
Soon the newspaper extras on the
streets in all parts Of the city carried
the news of danger or death that had
visited the firemen, and relatives and
friends of those firemen known to be
on duty went in throngs to the fire.
Out at her Ashland boulevard home
Mrs. Koran, wife of the marshal,
u,fAN nd chn
lieving until assured by the newspaper
reporters, she swooned In the midst of
her four little children. She was pros.
trated and has required medical atten-
ton.
A wrecking engine on the Chicago
and Eastern Illinois railroad brought
a derrick, topping obstructing DO,
cars into the ditch as 1t came A roaL
scraper. attached to one Of the cables,
scooped up great masses of brick and
scorching firemen savagely pushed the
great scoop into the brick heap in
hope of reaching the sufferers, whose
groans could be heard.
Fell at Their Posts.
Long before noon Assistant Marshal
Seyferlich, on his round Of the fire
area. began to find here and there
prone figures where before brave men
,, had stood in the breath of the flames
sturdily holding their own. They had
been overcome and their companions
had been unable to aid them. Some.