Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-26
lettering allS Check Res
cue Work in Ruins of
Fish Furniture Building
II BODIES IDENTIFIED
Disaster Caused by Youth
FiIIingCigar Lighter
with Benzine

i today was discontinued because VI wy
/ danger of tottering walls, but not until
/ twelve dead had been recovered ana
/ II of these identified.
Following is a list of the identified
dead:
/ painter.
ANDERSON, ETHEL, aged IS, stem
/ ographer.
BELL. MINER w, advertising
BURCKE, ROSIE, aged II; stenog-
/ rapher.
/ widow. forewoman folding department.
| SULLIVAN, LILLIAN, aged 16;
folder
/ GREEN. WILLIAM, aged "a; clerk.
| LICHTENSTEIN, ETHEL, aged is;
| stenographer.
/ MITCHELL, HARRY NJ, auditor of
| the company. member of the firm;
/ brother-in-law of Simon Fish.
| McGRATH, V, aged Is; stenogra-
pher.
QUINN. GERTRUDE. aged 20; folder.
| The missing:
Wargo. Mary. aged 90: folder.
st. Clair, Bert. aged 2S confidential
/ clerk
/ Three others whose names could not
be learned also are reported among
the missing.
Identified by Shoe
1 One of the bodies was identified by
/ Florence Sullivan as that of her sister,
/ Lillian. She said she recognized a Shoe
/ taken from one Of the bodies as one
/ that had been worn by her sister.
/ Florence, who is IS years old and a
switchboard operator. might easily
/ have shared her sisters fate. She was
/ to have gone to work for the Fish
| company at noon, taking the place of
another girl.
/ Alexander Bush a street car con-
/ ductor. identified one of the bodies as
j that of Rosie Burcke. whom he was
to have married on Easter Sunday. He
4 recognized by a number of trinkets,
| including an engagement ring
While earlier estimates placed the
number of victims trapped on the
| fourth and fifth floors of the building
at twenty, later and more thorough
investigation indicates that there were
! but seventeen. Two of these escaped,
which leaves three more to be ac-
counted for
The search was abandoned for the
| day on the report of Chief Building
| Inspector Short that three of the walls
were in a dangerous condition. If
| these are still standing in the morning
the work Of removing the debris will
be continued. A coroner's jury i'm
paneled this afternoon viewed the
| bodies at the morgue, but the inquest
was postponed until April 2.
! Leo Stoeckel a clerk in the employ
of the Fish company, who is said to
| have started the fire, told his story to
Fire Attorney Frank Hogan this after
noon. Although Stoeckel. who is but
20 years old, is admittedly more unfor-
tunate than culpable, Attorney Hogan
says he will bring some charge against
the young man to insure his attendance
at the inquest. Stoeckel was brought
before the fire attorney with his hand,
which had been burned, swathed in
bandages. He appeared heartbroken
and told his story with difficulty.
Stocked Tells Story
About S:45 o'clock this morning"
| Stocked said, MIR. Mitchell, who is a
member of the firm, gave me three
pocket cigar lighters and told me to
go to the fourth floor and fill them
with benzine. / had filled two of the
| lighters out Of the five-gallon can and
was working on the third when there
was an explosion.
| "a sheet of flame almost blinded
me. I did not fully regain my senses
until I had reached the street The
! lighters contained a contIivance to
make a spark, but whether l ignted
one Of them l don't know. ] either
dropped the can of benzine when the
! flame shot up in front of me or it was
blown out of my hands"
Three bodies We're found together i'm
the wreckage. Their position showed
the victims had been in an attitude Of
| prayer when death came.
Firemen poured water on the build
/ ing for two hours and half before the
| flames were sufficiently subdued to al
! low a search for bodies. The financial
loss is placed at 100000.
The Fish Furniture company occu-
pied two buildings separated by an
alley, one building fronting on Wabash
avenue, where the fire occurred, and
the other on State street, which is a
block west of Wabash avenue. Those
in the state street store, looking across
the alley. could see girls on the fifth
and sixth stories of the burning struc-
ture rushing back and forth to the
windows screaming for assistance. AT
times they chung to one another Then
some of them disappeared with their
hair and clothing blazing.
John Schmidt and William Peterson,
cabinet makers, who were at work in
the repair room, were among those
who escaped slightly burned. When
great sheet of fame shot across the
1OOr they were knocked down, out
managed to crawl to the front stair
way, whence they made their way to
the street.
Escape Barred by Flames
The spread of the flames throughout
the upper floors was almost instantane-
Gus, and when the girls rushed to the
stairways they found their escape cut
off They next turned to the front of the
building, smashing the windows. Then,
suddenly, Ethel Lichtenstein stepped
out on the window ledge and screamed
for help. Then she leaped. She was
taken to st. Luke's hospital, only a
few blocks away, but died soon after
ward.
Simon Fish, another member of the
furniture company, while the blaze was
at its height made charges of neglect
against the firemen. In bitter lam
guage he declared the firemen were
slow in responding to the alarm and
tardy in raising ladders. He protested
that fremen interfered with employees
who We're attempting to make rescues
and declared he would prefer charges
against the fire department.
Il believe there would have been no
loss of life if the tiremen had re-
spondcd promptly" declared Mr. Fish. |
Marshal Koran declared that his men |
responded without the loss of second, |
and expressed the opinion that Mr.. |
Fish would withdraw his charges after
he had Gained down.