Norwich bulletin., 1913-12-04
Eight Separate
 Investigations
ROSTON'S HOLOCAUST IS TO BE
 WELL PROBED
GRAND JURY ON SCENE
Visit Cheap Lodging House in Which 29 Inmates Perished = Owner De- clares That the Fire Was Set.

Boston. Dec 3-The fire which snuff ed out the lives of twenty eight home less men in the Arcadia Hotel, low priced lodging house in the South End district early today had become the subject of eight separate invest1ga- tions by nightfall. Some of these were aimed at determining where lay re- sponsibility for the conditions which made the loss of life so large, and others were directed toward devising measures to protect hundreds of other men forced by circumstances to seek shelter in similar places.
 Grand Jury Visits Scene.
 Most important of the days inquir- ies was that begun by the Suffolk triet Attorney Joseph c. Pelletier, the jurymen paid visit to the hotel while the ruins were still smouldering. They saw the remains of cots laid side by side in a general dormitory oD the fifth floor and narrow, box-hke rooms on floors below in which privacy was obtained by inmates for a few cents more than was paid by the dor mitory occupants.
 The cause of the fire was not de- termined.
 Most Deaths Due to Suffocation.
 large quantity of painters mater iaIs, District Attorney Pelletier said, was found in a closet on the second floor but, apparently 1t had not been touched by the flames. Later the jury went to the city hospital morgue. where Medical Examner Timothy J.. Leary pointed out that in nearly every instance death had been caused by suffocation although in two or three cases it was evident that fire ended the lives. Other lodging houses in the vicinity were afterwards inspected by the jury in order to see how those houses were conducted in reference to the safety of the occupants at night.
 Fourth Mysterious Fire There.
 Other investigations were the official inquest by Medical Examiner Leary; inquiries by the fire commissioners; the building commission and the board of health; the city police department; the state police; and personal re- search by Mayor Fitzgerald.
 Joseph Lyons of BrooLline, president of the firm which operated the Arcad- ia as part of Q, chain of lodging houses in Boston New York Brooklyn, New fire started under the stairs in the main hallway. Within a few months three other mysterious fires have been discovered there, he said.
 "This fire was undoubtedly set," he added
 [ otai FIhances of Victims. S1!4T.
 None of the men found burned to death had been identified tonight. Of the injured taken to the city hospi- tai, William Sullivan and George F. Adams, died during the day.
 Search of the dead developed little to assist in identification. It revealed the financial circumstances of the men when only $1.47 was gathered from the effects of all the victims
 Homeless Men Roam Streets.
 Several hundred human dere1icts roamed the streets tonight without a place to lay their heads. Mayor F'itz- gerald ordered limits placed on the number of guests to be accommodated in each of the lodging houses and many were left without a place to go. It was estimated tonight that more than five thousand men in poor cir cumStances resorted to these low price lodging houses for sleep each night