The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-12-23
Holiday Time Horror

yards. aud the police kept spectators
back from the danger line with great
difficulty
Holiday Time Horror
Not since The days following the Iro-
| quois thcatcr tragedy, which like the
disaster of today was a holiday time
horror have such pathetic scenes attend =
ed a fire In Chicago.
! Tho bodies of victims were taken 10
undertaking rooms near the FIRE Widows
md children of the dead men frsntcally
| crowded into the places. The bodies were
so badly mutilatcd I'm most cases tina,
The police woNld not permit the relatives
10 view them. In several instances wom-
| en- struggled madly with policemen in at
iempts TO see their dead
Mayor Russc late today called special
| meeting OF the city council which select
ed a committee OF Gftecn aldermen TO
| take charge OF relief work for families
| OF the dead and Ia make funeral arrange
| mcnts, At the same time Il meeting was
| held at the Chicago club. and wealthy
| business men started relief fund, Thea
| ter managers also prepared 10 hold benc-
! III Performances,
Commissioner Of Public Works Mulaney
| late tonight took $50 city lahorcrs 10 the
| Norris plant 10 relieve exhausted brclnen
| and policemen who could no longer keep
! on their feet. Commissioner MJylaney re-
mains at the fire To direct these men in
the search for bodies of the missing.
The fire started at 4 o'clock Thurs
day morning.
At ] p m the fire had been hedged
in and its spread had been check ed.
| but efforts to save any of the buildings
| originally attacked by the flames were
I i1 vain The buildings destroyed in
c'ude two warehouses full of dressed
neat. hams, etc, n tall house and other
structures.
| a wall fell. crushing an overhanging
wooden canopy on the beefhousc of
| Morris & Co. where the fire started
I5anpHfh
nies of firemen and the chief. These
men were crushed to death The de-
brs made a furnace into which FIRE.
men were unable to dig for several
hours.
Assistant Chief Perishes.
Assistant Chief William Burroughs
and Lieutenant Fitzgerald were with
he marshal under the canopy. receiv-
ing orders for directing the fight
against the spreading flames in other
quarters and they went to their death
with Koran
Other iremcn, witnesses OF the dis.
sster, for brief time deserted the
other parts of the blazing structures
and sought with their bare hands to
drag apart the glowing debris to bring
out the body Of their chief and his com
panions. Finding this vain effor,
they obeYed again the direction of
Assistant Marshal Seyferlich and re
doubled their efforts to prevent the
spreading of the flames.
The blaze was discovered at about 4
o clock by watchman in the Morris
heefhousc at Fortythird street and
Loomjs streets. An ammonia pipe,
bursting, started combustion that spread
so quickly that the watchman barely
had turned in fhe alarm before the
flames began bursting from the build
ing.
Fire Marshal Horan, at his home or
the west side. heard the second call for
apparatus and went to the stock yards
in his automobile. BY the time Of his
arrival his assistants had abandoned
the effort to save the beefhouse and
were endeavoring to head off the rush
of fire toward other buildings. Flames
were coming from several structures
near by,
The awning which later became the
destroyer of score of lives. seemed to
offer II shelter from the flames. Under
this the crews fled for shelter. led by
Koran. Burroughs and Fitzgerald
Canopy Is Crushed
On top of the canopy another group
Of fremen played streams Of water into
the heart of the FIRE. Suddenly Lieu.
tenant Joseph Mackey, leader of the
band above, felt the wall going and
shouted a warning to those below. He
Jumped with his men and escaped death.
J. 1T below the canopy death found vic
tins.
Streams OF water from one whole fire
company were poured on the pyre and
had cooled 1T to some extent when AS
sistant Marshal Seyferlich declared he
heard voice under the ruins. 1t was
about 1870 a. m. several hours after
the fatal fall.
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 the
hope that some Of the fated crew still
were alive, and four bodies were re
covered in few minutes.
Coroner Hoffman arrived early and
impaneled jury, which sat watching
the flames.
AS the bodies were brought out the
jurors Joined the hundred of civilians
who were aiding the fremen.
Out IN her Ashland boulevard home
Mrs. Horan, wife of the marshal,
learned she was widow, and disbe- |
lieved until assured by the newspaper
reporters, when she swooned She has
REQUIRED medical attention.
Wreck Engine at Work.
With the arrival at the wards of the
anxious friends of the firemen came de.
vices for clearing away the wreckage
above the dead. wrecklng engine Of |
the Chicago e. Eastern Illinois railroad
brought derrick, topplng obstructing
box cars into the ditch as it came.
y road scraper attached TO one of
The cables scooped up great masses Of
bricks, and scorched fircmen savaacly |
pushed the great scoop into the bricks
in hopes of reaching the sufferer whose
eroaus could be heard,
Long before noon Assistant Marshal
Seyfcrlich, on his rounds of The fire
area, began 10 find here and there men
who had fallen from exhaustion and
their compa mons who bad been unable
TO aid them. Some. recovering. started
IN anew TO stay the progress Of the
flames
Mayor Busse, who had gone 10 the |
tirc and was sorrowfulv discussing the
death Of Jim Koran with Assistant
Marshal Seyferlich had narrow es
cape. An explosion of ammonia pipes
threw bricks beams and frozen meat in |