South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-12-03
BOSTON FIRE CLAIMS
TWNTY-SEVEN LIVES

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.)
arrivals were striving to rescue others
from the flames.
Rush All Doctors.
Every available ambulance in he
city was rushed TO the scene and al
manner of c~onveyances were pressed
into service 10 take the injured 10 he
hospital. n special staff of doctors
and nurses were in readiness at he
city hospital when the first ambulance
arrived with ten people, This was
quickly followed by others. Physi-
clans were driven in automobiles to
the seat Of the fiH and attended
many OF the victims on the street and
in nearby houses thus relieving the
work at the hospital. The meager
fire escapes on the rear Of the build
ing offered escape to only a few.
Those occupying rooms in the front
Of the building were cut off by a wall
Of fire which scared up the stairway
and drove them to the windows to es-
cape s~uffocation. There were no fire
escapes on the front or side OF the
building and most of the dead were
found neal the windows.
The great rapidity with which the
fire leaped from floor to floor caught
the dodgers W and scores
awOke TO find their beds hemmed in
~ flames.
Suffocated in Sleep.
There they chung as the flames
belched from windows beneath them
and crept across the beds they had
vacated to the stills Of the windows.
Several narrowly escaped being
hurled from the coping into the street
in the rush for the ladders, which
fell just short of coping on which they
were clinging. The firemen assembled
as far as they could and caught the
dodgers as they jumped TO the tops
OF the ladders four stories in the air.
Eight of the dead were found on the
top floor, IL on the fourth and five
on the third floor. A large number
of those who lost their lives never
knew how they met their fate. h
majority are believed 10 have suffo-
gated in their sleep.
Started i'm Rubbish
The blaze is believed to have started
among some, rubbish III a real hall
way on the first floor. The first floor
was taken up by the main entrance of
the building. a shooting gallery, and
a liquor store. The second. third and
fourth floors were a labyrinth or
rooms, hardly bigger than cells and
sparsely furnished.
The top floor was a dormitory. Each
of h rooms was separated by a thin
WOOucH pdIIlIlOH.
Night clerk William Walsh had just
finished up his books when the fire
was discovered. He escaped ana dis
appeared. The work of rescue was
carried on under sewers handicaps.
The elevated railroad structure on
Washington street delayed the raising
of ladders in the front Of the building
where the two men who jumped lost
their lives. Laconia street was also
too narrow for the firemen to do eff
fective work on such an emergency.
The air was filled with the cries Of
the injured or shouts for help of the
panic stricken people at the windows.
Life nets were unfurled and spread,
but so many people missed the nets
when they jumped into them that they
were abandoned.
Perish ON Brink of Safety
Narrowing tales of those left be-
hind in the building and the horror
and peril of their escape were told by
those carried to the street. In many
cases the eScuerS were successful but
several times firemen were reaching
grasp a man pleading for assistance
only to see him slip back into the
flames and perish.
Medical Examiner Leary after an