The Wilmington morning star., 1946-06-06
MORE ABOUT
FLAMES
FROM PAGE ONE

IN more than Is years.
Fire, heat, panic and smoke
combined to create the huge death
toll. Property damage was cor
respondingly low, estimated at
500, 900 by firemen.
Jump To Death
Some patrons, h~ysterical with
fear, jumped to certain death from
their windows, others persisted in
their beds from smoke and fumes
given off by burning varnish and
lacquer on the woodwork . Many
bodies were found in smoke filled
corridors where the patrons drop
ped, overcome by smoke, while
attempting to escape.
Firemen said the flames first
were discovered coming from a
wall on the ground floor level.
The wall is near a bank of ele-
v~ators, a cocktail lounge and COT
fee shop.
Hotel employees, they said, turn
ed fire extinguishers on the blaze
an emploYe of the cocktail lounge
squirted water from a settler bot
tle-but the fire grew stronger and
the fire department was called.
Fire Marshal Michael Corrigan,
describing the fire as the worst in
his IS years of experience and
lone of the hardest to explain
started an immediate inquiry. He
said three explosions, spaced about
l IL minutes apart, preceded the
flames.
Among the victims were Mayor
Edward J. Schneidman of Quincy,
ILL.,; and the Rev. A. F. Schmitt-
henner of Chambersburg, Pa,
only recently returned. to the
United States after % years Of mis-
sionary service in India.
Exits impossible
The first alarm was turned in at
12:35 a. m. within 10 minutes the
first three floors were engulfed in
flames. The main street exits
were made impossible within min
utes as the flames raced through
the lobby and burned stairways to
the upper floors.
Five extra alarms were sounded
and more than 300 firemen brought
the blaze under control about $3.50
a. m.
John Flanagan, chief house de-
tective at the hotel, said the fire
started in the No. 5 elevator shaft.
Several hotel employees started to
the shaft with fire extinguishers
and the fire department was call
ed.
However, the flames spread
rapidly into the lobby and up other
elevator shafts and smoke beloved
into every corner of the 838-room
hotel.
Hundreds Of spectators lined the
streets adjoining the hotel in the
heart Of the La Sale street finan-
cial district. They shouted to fire
men as people poked their heads
out of their hotel room windows
and waved sheets or pieces of
clothing to attract attention.
Panic took hold swiftly. The
patrons, most of them in night
clothing, started for the Railways,
but many were driven back by the
dense smoke.
Some kept cropping through the
smoke and collapsed and suffo-
Gated. One man formed a chain
OF ave screaming women and led
them to a fire escape by the light
from a match he struck.
Smoke, Panic Dangers
Flames and heat were the great
est peril on the third, fourth, fifth
and six floors. Above the sixth
floor, smoke and panic were l. e
principal dangers.
Some patrons, burdened with
luggage and other belongings as
they started down fire scapes, toss
ed them into the street. They piled
up into a sodden mass of water
soaked garments and broken lug
gage below.
Firemen organized rescue squads
of civilian volunteers who helped
remove some of the injured and
frightened.
Bernard Trasca, sailor stationed
at the Glenview Naval Air station.
found a legless wal veteran hobb-|
ling around on artificial legs look
ing for his cane Trasca carried
him down a fire escape. A blind
woman, clutching the harness of a
Seeing-Eye dog, walked safely
down a fire escape.
The we'll of the big building-a
glass canopy covering the lobby at
the third floor level-became liter
ally a we'll Of death. The bodies
OF men, women and children who
had jumped from floors above
were found there. One woman had
a child grasped in her arms.
When the fire started, Mrs.
Julia Barry, "A year old widow
operating the main switchboard
on the second floor of the hotel,
remained at her post, ringing the
rooms to rouse the guests. Fire
men found her body at the switch
board. 49,.
The Red Cross set up head
quarters at the scene. The city
hag, one block away, was con-
vertAd into combination morgue
and first aid. station.
--f en- -a4,ot