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Show IN AND GIRLS Twenty-Seven Unfortunates Arc Hurled Into Flaming Pit During Fire in Montreal. 31 ANY VICTIMS EXPIRE . IN TERRIBLE TORTURE Attempts at Rescue Have to Be Abandoned in Face of the Flames. MONTREAL, Canada, June 1.1. Between Be-tween twenty and thirty persons lost their lives today when the supports of the sprinkler system tank on tho roof of the Herald building gave way and the great mass of metal and water, weighing weigh-ing thirty-five tons, went crashing to the basemen L The list of missing compiled com-piled hy the police totals twentv-soven. Flro broke out Immediately. Firemen displayed splendid heroism in rescuing scores of people from perilous positions within the tottering walls, some of which had to come down before the work of recovering the bodies could be safelv attempted. at-tempted. It was not. until after U o'clock this, evening that tho first body was brought out. All those who escaped agree that tho first warning of the Impending disaster passed almost unnoticed. There was a slight crenklrig: but it was not until tho ceiling plaster began to fall that a rush for the stairway began. Several survivors tell of falling one and two floors and crawling through the dust to a place of safety. The majority sought safelly by rushing to the front of tho building, facing on Victoria square. All the floors held for about thirty feet back from the front wall, anil to this Is due the fact that the death list did not run Into the hundreds, for there were nearly 'J00 persons In the building at the time. Saved With Ladders. "When the first hook and ladder company com-pany reached the scene the firemen found tho windows of the upper floors crowded with people and a crowd on the sidewalk side-walk urging" them not to jump. Not one Jumped. I-adders were quickly placed In position and tltosc in danger were brought to the ground. Ono ladder was hoisted, reaching to the fourth floor, on which the bindery was located. It came between two windows. From one of these a little girl crept along the coping until she could reach the ladder. lad-der. Grasping a rung with one hand, and placing a foot on another, she lent a helping hand to eight or ten other girls twice her size. When all the girls had reached the ladder and had been brought down, sho came down alone. By this time, fire had started and smoke was pouring from the front windows. The Utile girl fainted when she reached iho bottom of the luddcr. A doxen injured persons were brought from the ruins by the llremen, many of ihein with broken limbs. Tho rescue of Fred Vldal, a stercotypcr. was tho most daring. Half an hour after the llremen reached the building Vidal's groans were heard, and he was located under a girder, gir-der, from which he could not bo dislodged. dis-lodged. Although (lames were, creeping perilously near, thrco llremen began to cut the girder away. In the crowd outside out-side wus Father Martin. When lie heard of the tight against death he went Into the building and administered tho last sacrament to the semi-conscious man. Finally, however, the beam was cut through and Vldnl was released, not a moment too soon. Both his legs and several ribs were broken. Some Narrow Escapes. Evcrv member of Iho editorial stan" escaped unharmed, their quarters being In the front of the building. Fred Mnloney a linotype operator, worked on a machine at a point farthest from tho Victoria Squaro window, lie rose from his chair on tho alarm, and as ho did so the machine on which ho had been working disappeared through tho lloor. Tho (Ire started from the stereotyping department, the coals from Iho furnaces evidently being distributed on the different dif-ferent Doors through which the pots passed on their way to the basement, for the lire appeared to start simultaneously on all the lower floors. Tho building was valued at $ir.0.000 and was owned by the Herald company, while tho valuation of the plant Is placed at $300,000. About half of the linotype battery remained In position, and It Is believed the two newspaper presses located lo-cated In the basement were not seriously damaged. The rest of the plant Is hopelessly hope-lessly wrecked. The insurance on the bulld"ing and plant totalled 5177,000. Tho Herald appeared this evening as an eight-page paper, arrangements having hav-ing boon mado with the Gazette to continue con-tinue publication until new quarters can bo obtained. |
