TERRIBLE FIRE IN AMERICA.

Marlborough Express, Volume XL, Issue 6, 8 January 1907, Page 4

TERRIBLE FIRE IN AMERICA.

THIRTY LIVES LOST

Early on the morning of October 28 the building in which the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is situated caught fire and burned to the ground. Owing to a large part of the building being used for residential flats, : there was serious loss of life, as the: residents were cut off by the flames. It is believed, says a report written at the time, that thedead would reach thirty. Four; bodies have already been recovered from the ruins of the building, fifteen are still missing, and more than thirty injured, seven of whom are so badly burned or hurt that they cannot recover. The fire starfed about three o'clock, and is believed to be d;i<? to defective heating apparatus, 'ins flames spread so rapidly that the two hundred occupants of the upper floors could not escape by the staircases, which were burned away, and a fright-1 ful panic ensued. The building was a high one, and none of the ladders, rushed to the scene by the fire department, could reach above the fourth floor, which by this time was a mass of flames, preventing the terrorstricken occupants even, from reaching the windows. The windows of the floor's above this and the roof were crowded with half-dressed people, who had rushed from their beds on the alarm of fire. All efforts were directed towards rescuing them. Some of the saner men tied bedclothes together and lowered women and children ',tp ; the firemen, who mounted on the tops of the ladder's. Many were saved iit this way. Others jumped from the roofs on to mattresses or canvas sheets held by firemen, and dozens reached safety in this manner, though in two cases men over-jumped the sheets and were killed on the pavement below; Others, in their frenzy, not waiting for safer means, jumped from the window and the roof, and some were thrown by others to the firemen. It was only children who could be caught in this way, and several women were killed or injured. By dint of hard anfl rapid work most of. those in the building were got down by the means described, but .'a number refused either to jump or to be lowered, and fully a/ score of these were on the rootf when the building collapsed and they fell into the burning ruins. Many were got out by the firemen, but-a number are missing.