The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-05
Two Aged Priests Trapped on
Fifth Floor.
Score of Firemen Buried as
Building COllapses.
LOSS WILL REACH 100000
Hundred Students and 30 OF
Faculty Escape Flames.
Number of Firemen Dead in
Ruins Yet Unknown.

st. Louis Oct about noon the
fourth floor of the college building
collapsed and twenty firemen plunged
to the basement. Six were taken out
badly injured. Others are in the
wreckage.
Four others were missing an hour
and a half after the floor collapsed.
The loss is estimated at more than
100000.
On the roof of the building was one
of the most elaborate wireless sta
tions in the United States. 1t was
used frequently in investigations to
determine the relations between sun
spot activity and atmospheric magnet
ism. Two wings of the building were
saved and the part destroyed was the
central section-the original college
building.
One Victim 81 Years Old.
st. Louis, Oct. 5.-Brother Cormac,
go, and Brother Clement, IS, and an
aged attendant are missing and be-
lieved dead in the fire that destroyed
Christian Brothers college here to-
day.
The fire, which started at 1880,
spread rapidly, and in less than an
hour had almost completely destroyed
the institution, which was one of the
oldest Catholic schools in the United
States.
Jumps From Fifth Floor.
All the faculty except two and all
students were accounted for Most
of the students had not arrived for
the days work when the fire started
The room of the two men who per-
ished on the fifth floor of the infirm-
ary was swept by the fire, and it is
not thought either could have escaped.
The assistant nurse who was injured
was Lewis Nolan, who jumped from a
fifth story window in the infirmary,
rs firemen were climbing ladders to
rescue him. He lives in Morrisonville,
Ill. It is thought that his injuries will
prove fatal.
The fire was discovered by the col
lege registrar as he was walking up
stairs to the fifth floor room where
Brothers Cormac and Clemens were
being attended by Nolan. At that
time more than 100 boarding students
and thirty or forty members of the
faculty were at breakfast.
100 Students at Breakfast
Brother Abban saw flames creeping
across the fifth floor, and without
taking time to discover the cause of
the fire, he rushed downstairs and
gave the alarm.
The students and faculty members
who were in the dining room rushed
out of the building but by that time
the fifth floor was cut off by the fire
and it was impossible to reach the
two aged men there. Students who
gathered on the campus saw Nolan.
I the assistant nurse climb on the fifth
floor window sill and jump
/ Two firemen had reached the fourth
floor on scaling ladders, but just then
the flames enve1oped Nolan and he
leaped to the lawn below.
The building destroyed was a six
story structure. Apparently the fire
! started on the fourth or fifth floor
near the elevator shaft and spread
quickly to the cupola which spans a
| rotunda in the center of the building
About an hour after the fire WAS dis
! covered the cupola collapsed and fell
| into the rotunda.
| The college building was a block
/ from the nearest water pl lgs and sew
eral blocks from other plugs, and fol
this reason firemen were delayed ir
The water pressure also was made
quate, due to the fact that the build
ing was on a high elevation Wher
the cupola collapsed into the rotunda
I the second floor burst into lanes and
then it was evident that the buildins
could not be saved. Just before tn,
roof collapsed eight or ten men of tn,
salvage corps, who were in the build
| ing, were directed to leave They go
out just in time.
! The sacred vessels in the colleg,
chapel were rescued by Brothers. Th'
natural history and curio museum, il
the corridor, was destroyed. Thi.
museum was started by Brother
! Cormac, who is believed to have per
ished in the fire.