The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-03
SCORES INJURED IN JUMPING FROM HOTEL WINDOWS Only One Body Identified or All Those Who Died
 In Flames. PROPERTY LOSS IS
 PLACED AT S25, 900 Two Investigations Are Started To Place Blame For
 CatastrOphy.

~@A-~A-AO
 Catastrophy. Boston, Dec. ATwenty-seveu men were killed in a fire which swept through the upper floors of the Area diaL Hotel cheap mems lodging house in the south end. early today. Others are missing and scores were taken to hospitals suffering from burns and injuries received in jumping from | windows.
 Nearly all the bodies were terribly burned and mut1Iated, making identih- cation almost impossible. The vic t1ms were men in poor cfrcum stances who had resorted to the place for @ nights lodging. Many of them were negroes. Caught in the crowded hunks on the top floor of the five story brick building and in the small rooms on
 the fourth floor they were helpless When they were aroused the stair ways were in flames and there was a mad rush for the fire escapes at the rear. Practically all the men were naked.
 Many were rescued by the Aremsn and police. Others escaped by walk ing shalzy plank stretched to an adjoining building or jumping across a five foot alley to neighboring roofs. The property loss Is estimated at S25s0o0. The Arcadia was located at the corner of Washington and Laco- N mia streets. The lower floors were occupied by stores.
 The fire started, no one knows how. l in hallway closet on the second | floor. The Hames swept up the wood i en stairways and burst through the roof. According to William Walsh. the night clerk, there were IFS 1ode- CTS in the building when the fire ] was discovered by a passing news boy. After turning in an alarm he rushed into the building, awakening the men with his shouts. The top floor was one large room filled with cots and hunks On the fourth floor, where the loss of life was heaviest, there were 90 tiny rooms. like cells, with two cots in each. A hallway ran through the center. Nearly all those occupying perished. The men in the rear rooms opening on the fire escape, had lock ed the doors when thev went to bed and those in front were unable to reach the fre-escape.
 When the firemen arrived, flames were shooting 20 feet into the air from the windows on the fourth and fifth floors and the Horoscopes and the roof were a mass of shrieking, strug- gling humanity. Despite shouts of assurance from below, three men jumped from the roof. Two were instantly killed. The third, who had wrapped 8 mattress about himself, escaped with a few bruises.
 Life nets were quickly stretched by the fremen and many were rescued in this manner. Others were taken down ladders with the flames sweep ing about them. The intense heat soon drove the f1remen from their lad ders and made it necessary to fight - the fire from the street and from the elevated railway structure running in front of the building.
 The fire was in the heart of a crowd ed tenement and lower class hotel dis trict. Hundreds of occupants of ad- Joining buildings rushed to the street when the great quantity of apparatus called out by three alarms changed up to their doors.
 The excited foreigners crowded about the burning building and i'm peded the hremen in their work and large squad of police had great diff fculty in forcing back the thronE.
 It was nearly hour after the fire men arrived before they were able to enter the lodging house The hrs- man to ascend a smoking ladder shouted: My God. boys, that place is filtered with dead.'
 Medical Examiner George B. Me Grath arrived shortly afterwards and soon was Joined by pr. Timothy Leary, associate medical examiner It was a gruesome sight as the bodies were removed in the early dawn On lockers crowded about the automo- bile hearse but many turned away as the DuEneu anu HIduSlGu bDlAe5 were lowered one by one to the street and placed in the wicker baskets
 At daybreak the f1remen were stiu searching the ruins. The hospitals reported that many of those who es- capped were destitute. Their cloth ing and meagre belongings were lost in the mad scramble to safety.
 The only body identified was that of George F. Adams of South Boston.
 Most of the injured, r of whom were taken to the city hospital either had no homes or lived \here- One of the sufferers said he was Frank Harris, of South Market street, Chi cago.
 Before the ruins had cooled two inc vestigations were begun One was undertaken by the grand jury, which viewed the scene and who were pre- pared later in the day to hear tes- timony regarding the manner in which the owners and Iessees of the proper ty had observed the building and fife regulations.
 One other probe by the building inspection department of the city was started under orders from Mayor F'itz- gerald.