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Show I County Poor House Is All the Inmates, Many of Them Helpless, Are Removed. IB . ilames Break Out About 11:15 A. 11". , and Unge for Fivo Hours Before J They Aro Under Control. I The main building: o tlio County In- L I flrmary went up In smoke yesterday. Five BJ lone hours tho lire raged anil during that '( tlmo destructive flames traveled from celling to basement, leaving nothing savo bare, charred walls. None of the twonty- clghi bedridden Inmates was Injured, for P tho flro was discovered when ju.t buret- ' I Ing Into flamo nnd willing hands soon placed the helpless women out of safe reach of tho destructive flames. Due to Defective Flue. The cause of the fire Is laid by the fire department to a defective chimney Hue, while Mrs. Jones, wife of the superlntend-unt, superlntend-unt, Is Inclined to attribute it to bnd wiring. wir-ing. The fire was first noticed at 11:15 by Mrs. Marv Stowart, the cook at the inflrmarv. No flames wero visible then, but from under tho eves by the kitchen chimney there came little- puffs of smoke. I "Within tho flro was burning In the range, 1 and this seems to glvo added strength to I the theory that the fire was duo to a D defectlvo tlue. I Discovered by the Cook. , When Mrs. Mary Stowart first dlscov- 1 crcd tho smoke she was at a loss to know I its cause. For a moment she gazed at it I in wonderment, but a sniff of the smoke !,- followed by a bright flame that darted I out from the roof shattered all doubts. I Just at this moment all inside were con- centratlng their attention on tho removal of tho body ofJohn Dougherty, one of I the Inmates who had Just died. I Alarm Is Sounded. I Mrs. Jones, Just through telephoning for an undertaker's wagon, still held the H receiver as Mrs. Stewart pushed her head in the door and said: "Get all the women out. This place Is on lire, but there's tlmo to rescue everybody." Immediately Mrs. H Jones notified tho Flro department. I Wrong Place Given. H. Either through excitement or some other W mistake, tho alarm was sent Into the Flro I department as coming from Fourth South I j and Stale streets. Later the mistake wns I corrected and Chief Bywater mot his men j Just as they wero roturnlng to tho sta- pj tlon, and together they started on the j long run. Hose wagon No. 1 and steamer I Roosevelt made the run; later No. 2 truck I' came to their reinforcement. The run r was mado In about half an hour, bnt the I horses wero thoroughly fagged, even be- I fore tho scene was reached. j. Mass of Flames. LI When the department arrived the bulld-ing bulld-ing was a mass of flames the roof was H gono and llttlo tongues of flame wero rap- idly making their way down tho lath par- ' tltlons to the very basement. It required no. expert to see that the building was i doomed. To make conditions, already bad. worso there was very llttlo water available In the big Irrigation ditch at tho corner. All the water In adjoining ditches wns quickly turned Into It by county j rpad men and. this defect overcome. H Rescuing the Inmates. . wL As soon as the Are was discovered work of removing tho inmates was begun. Most II of tho Inmates, all of whom were women, H are so old that thev are helpless. Many cannot walk. These hnd to bo carried. Others, Just able to move around, reslst- ed; wanted to know why they should go, and begged to take along some old trinket. I Crowd of Workers. 1 Mrs. Stewart and Mrs Jones, assisted by several men around the Infirmary, be- gan the rescue work alone. Swiftly and untiringly they worked, but uld soon I came. Frank Hall nnd Jack Post, two I street car men. received the alarm from I children, descried their car and rushed II to tho rescue. Men passing In" buggies I came Ih, neighbors rushed to tho scene D nnd twenty men working under County I Iload Supervisor Snow In tho Immediate B vicinity added their strength to tho al- I ready enormous crowd otVescuo work- 1 ers- Nanow Escape of Mrs. Stewart. I Thcro wero nets of heroism. Mrs. Stcw- I art, nerved by the occasion, carried no less than six women downstairs. Ada Bird, struggling down the stairs with 130- I pound invalid on her shoulders gave way I and sank to tho floor exhausted. Later 1 tho rushed back to the infirmary clothes closet when the celling fell. She was not I touched, but the Jar and a flame that f blistered her check made the situation i Tltical until Prof. Evan Stephens of the j Tabernacle choir nnd Mr. Chrlstophcrson. ' e florist, pulled her out Into the open Hj'j Keeping Inmates Out. r' But tho hardest work was not to get the L Inmates out of tho building, it was to keep them put. Mrs. Tur-kfleld made her Wl' back into tho building after being rescued to get an old tin trunk and a f worthless hat. Mrs. Nancy O'Brien didn't h care If the wholo establishment burned fe down if they would only save her false H teeth. One of the old men remarked- "If they had only been wlso enough to snrln-klc snrln-klc the roof all this could have been H Dtoppcd." A thousand such Incidents Ht happened. Carried Out Three Times. il"',0."0 '"mate were carried out of the building as many as three tlme3 Even after tho flro department arrived when the building was all In flame, Chic' Bywater found one old man hiding In tho comer of a room. Several old women wandering about as if nothing was tho j matter had to, be lifted up und carried out of tho building by the firemen, Threw Bedding Out. To make sure thnt no inmato was left in bed Mrs. V. R. Jones ordered thut all the led clothing bo thrown out of the windows. This was saved, as wero tho bed ticks and mattresses. The rescue work over some of the men turned their attention to fighting tho flre. In fact Mr. A. F. Kendall, tho Infirmary steward from the very first tried to beat back tho Homes, but as ho hnd nothing but a gnr-den gnr-den hose his efforts failed. Others seeing that such a battle wa.s hopeless tried to uave all furniture of any value Mr W R. Jones's desk with all the records of the Inflnnary was paved, along with a piano and much other vnluablo furniture. Men's Department Saved. When tho fire department arrived Chief Bywater worked all his forco to contino-tho fire to tho main building. By 1 adopting this method tho annex or men's h 1 department wns saved. Tho flre continued to rage fiercely until late in tho after-- after-- noon. By about 'I o'clock It was under control, but still smoldering. It was not until nri"i-'4 o'clock that the flre was en-kri en-kri tlrely mihducd, but by this time It had B 1 practically burned Itself out. F Commissioners on the Ground. County Commissioners Mackey. "Wilson nnd Miller wero on tho sceno soon after the flre started and did good work. Su- pcrintendent Jones Is off In the canyon for a few days and yesterday all efforts to notify him of the tire were futile. The uged women who were ngaln rendered ren-dered homeless by the lire were removed to tho orphans' homo which is located next door to tho north. They will remain thcro for the present at least. Loss Eight Thousand Dollars. Tho loes by the flre Is estimated at between be-tween f70 and f?000. The to.tal Insurance on the destroyed property only nmounts to J3S50, Of this a policy of SllGO on the contents Is held with tho Ensign, Elder & Cnrtwrlght company In the Williamsburg Williams-burg City Flro Insurance company. Tho remaining JIVjO is with tho E. If. Pcirce Firo Insurance company, being placed with the Glrard company of Philadelphia Phil-adelphia and $1000 with the Anchor of Cincinnati, Question of Rebuilding. Commissioner Mackoy, who Is chairman chair-man of the committee having the Infirmary Infirm-ary In charge. Fald that as yet tho County Coun-ty Commlfsloners had not considered tho (juration of rebuilding. Somo years ago tho county purchased a tract of ground in East Mill Creek, tho purpose being to erect a permanent county Infirmary there. An far a he was concerned, Commissioner Com-missioner Mackey xajd, he did not favor cither the old or the new slto for the Infirmary. In-firmary. One Suggestion Not Approvod. The suggestion has been mado that tho present slto be retained as a count v hospital, hos-pital, where, diseased and Infirm p'orsonH could be kept nnd treated, and a county poor farm ho established on the new sito. where Indigent persons able to perform labor might be employed. This plan, however, did not jncel with tho approval of CommlHHloner Mackey, who said the wholo. Institution should be under ono management, The County Commissioners were In session ses-sion ycfltcrday. but the Infirmary matter was not brought up except in nn Informal way. Chairman "Wilson of tho County Commissioners said that tho infirmary would, of course, be rebuilt, but thnt the board had not as yot taken up tho question. ques-tion. Likely Rebuild on Present Site. Only recently the county has gone- to considerable expense in preparation for tho laying of a pipe-line to convey water from a spring whlrh 'was added to tho county's possessions during the administration adminis-tration of Chairman James II. Anderson, to the present county Infirmary site, and also to furnish water for sprinkling tho roads In that vicinity. An this Is" cx-liocted cx-liocted to furnish nn adequate water supply" sup-ply" for the infirmary, this fact mav havo Its Influence In determining tho matter of rebuilding on the present site. |
