Arizona republican., 1913-03-01
Bodies of at Least Twenty Hotel Guests Lie Beneath Debris in Omaha HolO- caust When Bremen Fail to Beat Flames
BUT FOUR BODIES
 ARE RECOVERED
Register thought to be lost and Dead May Never be Known: Even Number Of, Victims is Not Ascer- tained Yet
ASSOCIATED PRESS prsPArcH1


 OMAHA. Feb. 2S8-A score of bodies are believed to lie tonight be meath the debris of a fire which de- stroyed the Dewbey hotel here today. CeaseIess toll during the day and late into the night of firemen and other city employees failed to uncover the bodies of guests in the little hostelry who lost their lives. Estimates of the number of victim which ran as high as seventy-five, dwindled during the day to as low as ten or eleven. but indications tonight are at least q score or possibly more persons lost their lives in the fire. The register of the hotel so far as is now known was lost in the fire, and the names of those who died will probably never be known. Tonight only four bodies were recovered. These were those of persons who either jumped from open windows or died from exposure or fn- juries They were:
 CHARLES CUMMINGS. bartender.
 An unidentified man, whose nude body was recovered before the inter- for of the building collapsed. MRS. ADDIE BONNEVUE, sister of Mrs c. F. Wilkins, wife of ehe proprietor of the hotel CHARLES BEVERLY. employed by local commission firm. It is believed that the fire started I in the basement from gas explosion. | A few weeks ago a leaking gas main was discovered in the rear of the i building. The gas supply was shut off and the windows and doors open ed to prevent the asphyxiation of the guests
 1 The rapid headway made by the ! flames is believed to indicate that such condition again existed. The fire was discovered by a watchman, 1 who entered the Adams express of l flee in the building to report that he i had turned in a still alarm, and again !, rushed to the street to find the Ra- 1 phael clothing store on fire and turned in second and third alarms which brought all the downtown fire [ apparatus.
 The building was then a mass Of flames Persons were seen at the windows in the upper stories, but be- fore ladders could be run up the roof began to cave in. A few minutes later the interior of the building col lapsed into the basement, carrying down an unknown number of vic- 1 timS
 Upon this the rear wall fell with hundreds of tons of debris.
 The work of the firemen was hand- icapped by the bitter cold. Within a few minutes after turning on the
 streams the frozen pipe lines began
 to burst X few guests who escaped
 from the second story windows or
 through the Thirteenth street en-
 trance were taken to nearby drug
 store and restaurant and other neigh
 boring places, scantily attired. ! Only four bodies were recovered
 before the firemen were driven from the building by the flames.
 ] Lizzie Steiss, d paper carrier, and
 one of the heroes of the fire, with the
 clerk awakened a number of guests
 and aided in dragging the dazed per
 sons from the building. She then
 collapsed from the effects of the
 smoke.
 ,, The loss is approximately s250,000 Several business firms had quarters
 in the building. which was three l stories in height.