TERRIBLE FIRE IN NEW YORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 85, 12 April 1899, Page 2

TERRIBLE FIRE IN NEW YORK.

NW-.DSOR HOTEL BURNED

MANY LIVES LOST

NEW YORK, March 17,

Flames which originated from the igniting of a lace curtain burst forth from the second floor of the Windsor Hotel, at Forty-seventh street and Fifth Avenue, shortly after 3 o'clock this afternoon, just as the St. Patrick's day parade was passing the building, and in a few moments they had leaped to the roof and enveloped the entire Fifth Avenue and Fortyseventh street fronts of the hotel.

Ten minutes later the flames were roaring through thei nterior of the hotel, and all escape by means of stairways and elevators was cut off.. There, was the wildest scene of excitement. Hundreds of guests and employees were, in the hotel when the fire broke out, and for many of them escape was impossible. Probably from ten to fifteen lives were lost within half an hour, and from thirty to forty persons were injured by jumping from windows and rushing through the roaring flames in the corridors and on the stairways. Many who were injured died later in near by residences and at hospitals, and others who made wild leaps to the stone sidewalks were so badly injured that they are still hovering between life and death. It may be twenty-four hours or more before the complete list of fatalities becomes known, and it will be longer than that before it can be ascertained definitely how many charred bodies are in the mass of. fallen mason y that marked the spot, where the hotel stood.

The flames could not be checked and in two hours from the time the tire broke out the entire structure was in ruins and the streets on three sides of the building were filled with debris from fallen walls and chimneys, while the streams of water being poured upon the interior of the ruins had no other effect than to fill the air with clouds of scalding steam, making it impossible for any one to approach near enough to search for the bodies of those who perished.

The fire was the most spectacular that could be imagined. When it broke out Fifth Avenue was crowded with people watching tho St. Patrick's Day parade, and every window In the front of the hotel facing Fifth Avenue was filled with spectators. . ' •

As soon as the flames were discovered shooting from tho windows, that part of the procession which was near the building came to a halt, and in a few minutes the parade was disbanded, for the police came rushing toward the lire from every direction and where they were able drove the people from the streets. One lira alarm after another was turned in. Tho engines caused a wild scramble among the paraders and spectators as they rushed along the street and fell into position for service.

In addition to the regular guests of the hotel the windows were crowded by a large number of spectators, residents of this city, who had congregated there to witness tho parade.

Soon after the first alarm was given people in tho lower floors of tho hotel, those who had easy access to the street and the stairway commenced to pour out of the building in great numbers, but it very soon became apparent that a great majority Of the occupants of the hotel were either panic stricken or unable to make their way to the ground floor.

Windows were thrown up on every side of the building, and guests mostly women, in all stages of terror, mado their appearance and uttered frantic appeals fo assistance to the crowd below. As the flames gathered about them they became more and more terror stricken and presently some of them stood upon the narrow window sills and beckoned to the spectators that they were about to leap. The men "collected on the sidewalks ready to render any assistance they could, and in the meantime some of the women left the window sills and dropped to the street. In most instances the efforts to catch them and break their awful fall were unavailing, for they struck the sidewalk and in most cases broken limbs were tne result. As soon as the -firemen could get their scaling ladders into position they climbed the sides ,of the building and entered at every window where thero was an unfortunate guest appealing for aslstance, and many cases of heroic rescue were witnessed by the throng In the streets. ■ .

At the corner of Forty-seventh street and Seventh avenue, directly across from the hotel, is the home of Miss Helen Gould, and at her direction many of the injuqed were carried there and were treated by physicians and nurses whom she had sent for. In the meantime the Chief of Police had tele 1 phoned to every. hospital in the city asking that assistance be sent. Ambulances forced their way through the crowds as quickly as possible, and the injured jieoplc who had made the frightful leaps from the hotel windows "were placed in them and removed so the hospitals. Several occupants of the hotel appeared' at the windows of the sixth and seventh stories and even on the roof, and leaped to the streets from those points. Very few of them escaped either instant death or injuries which resulted in their death in a short time later.

In the meantime.the entire building was being enveloped in flames, which shot out from every window and formed a picture which struck terror to all those who were witnessing it. • Within forty or forty-five minutes, after the fire broke out the walls on the Fifth avenue side showed every indication of falling, and presently, with an awful crash, they struck the asphalt covering of the street in.front of the hotel and caused the hundreds of people who were standing there to scatter in every direction. This fall weakened the walls on the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh street sides ,and they followed a- moment later. When the walls fell the brick and mortar and twisted girders and corrugated iron filled the streets on three sides of the hotel.

The doorsteps and iron fences in front of the houses on the opposite side of the street from the hotel were wrecked by the falling walls, and the amount of debris piled in the streets was so great that travel will be impeded for several days. The northeast wing of. the hotel continued to burn for a half hour after the walls of the other building fell. The firemen continued to play streams upon the flames and on the adjoining buildings, including Miss Gould's Besidence, which seemed in imminent clanger of catching fire, but the flames were brought under control before they could reach any of them.

There were many thrilling scenes in the hotel during the early stages of the fire. A hall-boy discovered the flames while he was passing along the fourth floor, immediately over the rooms occupied by President Mcßinley's brother, Abner McKihley, and his faraihr. The boy pulled a chain attached to the Are alarm, but the chain broke, and then he cried out an alarm of fire and ran to the floor below. The

blaze was then licking up everything on the Fifth avenue end of the building, and the' lad, when he got to.the floor above the main hall, ran into the American dining-room and gave the alarm to the guests there. Only a few persons were in the dining-room at the time, and they escaped. When the boy reached the main-floor Warren F. Leland, proprietor of the hotel, was in the rear of the long hall, and the boy shouted to him that the building was on fire. On Mr Leland's instructions the clerks tried to save all the books and papers, and the boy then rushed clown the basement stairway and alarmed the women who were at work in the laundry. It is believed that all of them escaped.

One of the most daring rescues made by the firemen occurred on the fifth floor on the Fifth avenue front. An elderly woman was seen at the window, and two firemen succeeded in reaching the window immediately underneath. One of them climbed to the coping', when he got into the American dining-room, and then swung the woman clear of the window and landed her safely in the arms of his companion, who, with the assistance of several other firemen, pushed her down to the street.

The first horror occurred just fifteen minutes after the fire broke out. A handsome woman appeared at the window of a room on the fourth floor. She held out her arms to the crOwd below. Then she raised her hands as if in supplication, and in a moment climbed to the window and leaped. She turned about like a top, artd struck the iron railing in front of the hotel. Her body seemed to be impaled there, but it fell off and into the area way. She was dead.

One of the most thrilling scenes of the fire—at a time when the building was a seething cauldron of flame—was the heroic rescue of several women from the upper, stories. One had been carried down from the fifth story. Mrs A. H. Fuller of Pittsburg then appeared with her maid at the window of the fourth story. It seemed an age before the ladder wa,s raised. Firemen ran ii]) and with great difficulty brought down Mrs Fuller .and her maid. Justas she was gotten out of the window,a middle-aged woman appeared at a window just north of that at which the ladder was placed. The woman, fearing she would not be rescued, prepared to jump. She was warned to keep back and became panic stricken and stepped back into the dense smoke. Another ladderman, seeing the desperate situation of the woman, seized a -sealing ladder and went up story after story through the dense smoke. He climbed to the coping just as the woman reappeared. Catching her by the waist and holding tightly to the building, he crept slowly on. the coping and passed the fainting woman to another fireman who had braced himself to receive her. ' There was a dreadful suspense as the fireman drew the woman toward him and finally, had her safely ort the ladder. A tremendous cheer went up from ttje crowd. Fireman John Hanna of thefireboat Zephar Mill's rushed through the smoke to the top floorand found Night Watchman McNicholl half asphyxiated. Hanna lowered him by means of wire to the fire escape two stories below and let himself down this way. His hands were badly cut by the wire. Then Hanna assisted the old man down the fire escape. Fireman William Kennedy of Engine Company No. 25 rescued Mrs Brann from the fourth floor of the hotel by. means of a scaling ladder. His rescue was cheered by the immense crowd. • A crippled woman was found dying on the floor of a room on tthe fourth floor unable to move and was carried iv safety to the street. Assemblyman John H. Maher, Sheriff. Dunn and Police Commissioners Hess, Sexton and Abell all assisted in taking persons from the hotel. Captain Emil H. Pate of Company L, Forty-seventh United States Volunteers, rushed up to the fourth floor and rescued an old crippled man who was partly asphyxiated by the smoke and burned. Policeman Luke Miley rescued three women from the fourth floor and was badly burned about the hands and face and his uniform was nearly burned from his back. A Brooklyn fireman who came over to see the parade, saw a woman on the seventh storey right over where the fire occurred first. He rushed up-' stairs and rescued Kate Flannigan, a domestic. She was badly burned and injured by falling debris and was unconscious when brought down. Thomas Mcpherson, an employee of the Government docks: in Brooklyn, went through the fire and smoke and rescued Mrs .R.. Butler, who was unconscious from shock and fright. McPherso.n was so badly burned that he had to be taken to the hospital himself. ■ ■ " .

All these rescues and many, others occurred within a period of a few minutes. Meanwhile terrifying scenes were being enacted by frenzied men and women on almost every floor of the great building. How many persons are buried in the ruins is not known, but at least three or four persons were seen to jump whose bodies have not been recovered. A young man, apparently an-employee, jumped from the roof on the Forty-sixth street side of the- hotel. Another unknown man jumped on the Fifth Avenue side, and two more were seen to jump from the rear. Shortly after that two women jumped from the roof to the court below.

It is known that two of these at least are dead. Eye-witnesses say that they saw a Woman throw a child from a window and fall a moment later herself, just before the collapse of one of the walls. As yet no trace of these bodies has been found.

Two men, one a fireman and the other an employee, carried Mrs Warren Leland to the-street. The woman's clothes were burned from her body. The men found her in the hall way, lying on the floor unconscious. They saw one woman leap from the window of the room, but they had no time to stop her. She was Miss Helen Leland, daughter of Mrs Lei a rid. This was the saddest incident of the.fire. Warren Leland is the proprietor of the Windsor Hotel. The Lelands have another daughter, Miss Fannie Leland, but she' was away from the hotel at the time.

Mrs Leland died in the Flower Hospital at 9.15 to-night. Her son Charles was the only relative with her when the end came. He remained at the bedside for some time after her death took place and then walked quickly downstairs. There he met his father, who, with Warren Leland, junr., .a nephew and a friend, had just come to the hospital. The old gentleman was greatly agitated.

'Charlie, my boy, how is your mother?' he asked, his voice thick with emotion. ,

'Mother is resting quietly, father.' replied the son, who feared to tell his

father the truth that his mother had just died. Mr Leland was then taken away by his sOn to the house of a friend.

The loss on the contents of the building is almost complete. The salvage men managed to save 20,000 dollars' worth of paintings on the first floor of the. hotel, but very little else was carried out. Many of the guests who lived at the Windsor lost valuable jewellery and bric-a-brac, among them being F. F. Flower, a nephew of, ex-Governor Flower, who, amomr other things, lost a package of jewelfery valued at 8000 dollars.