| Show SPOKANE HOLOCAUST Eight Bodies Hidden In the Debris of Ruined Building AN AGONIZING SPECTACLE WORD S PAINTING OF THE HORROR ROR OF AWFUL SCENE I Acts of Heroism and CourageFire r men Terribly Handicapped By the Network of Wires How M Davies Met Her Death Fire Still Burning Spokane Wash Jan 25Af t reultL Of a disastrous fire which I ke out t shortly before midnight last night m i the Great Eastern business block in Riverside avenue at least eight hita were lost and the burned remains are hidden in a mass of debris in what was the basement The tames started in the basement i is thought from a boiler explosion and when the alarm was given that part of the building u a a roaring furnace The fourth and h floors were used as apartments and nearly 150 people were in the rooms at the time Several brave men risked their livesto climbthe stairs and ruse the sleeping people sleeping AGONIZING SPECTACLE By this time the streets were filled with a horrified throng and men and women were appearing at the windows and Imploring thule below to sao them The corridorc had become hlUJ with dense smoke and men wonicu and children were falling there fntn suffocation Several score of halfi lad people were helped down the fire escapes es-capes Trembling women clad only in their night robes stepped barefooted into the snowy streets and fainting were carried to places of shelter The firemen worked with desperate energy and saved many lives but their efforts were terribly handicapped by a network of wires around the flaming building AMERICAN COURAGE The scene was one of horrible fascination fasci-nation The throng in the streets were frantic with horror and the awful gloom was only relieved when some act of heroism or courage saved an ndtD gered life Then a great cheer would American courage was neer go up Amerieln coure seen to better advantage Brave men risked their lives time and again tore to-re cue women and children and the thrilling scene was repeatedly witnessed wit-nessed of a daring man climbing dwn a narrow fire escape from the top stur t roarintr buildintr with a faint tea of the roarlnJ buiding u U1 lt ing woman or a screaming child in his arms EIGHT LIVES LOST Eight lives and probably nine were I lost in last nights fire in the Great Eastern block They were Miss Alice Wilson aged 18 emplojtfd as a hat trimmer Her sister Maud Wilson aged > Mrs Rose Smith aged 20 Tose lr H G Davies an elderly lady from Nebraska City Neb wh ft11 in descending from the fifth story died at the hospital this morning I W B Gordan mining engineer and expert Mrs Cora Peters and herdaughters Ethel and Alma aged respectively 9 and 7 I is also thought that her ton Charles aged 12 perished but there I are reports that he was saved anti vas I taken into the country by relatives I lr Davies was living with her daughter lr J T Pronger They I had rooms on the fifth floor and found themselves cut off from the stairway I The firemen tailU in and fire escape fremen fallJ il I their efforts to lift ladders to the fifth story owing to a tangle of electric light and telephone wires Mr Pronger discovered dis-covered two large wires running up the outer wall of the building He I i climbed down these to the fourth strand I str-and managed to catch the top of the i swaying ladder in a network of wins I I He descended to the ground and uas followed back up the ladder by a fre man carrying a light ladder on hii shoulder This was connected with the main ladder Mrs Pronger caught it and made fast to the other end and she then descended in safety LOST HER HOLD Meanwhile Mrs Davies had tried to follow Mrs Pronger but in the dense I smoke missed the ladder She came on I down hand under hand until she I reached the second story There she 1 lost her hold and fell to the stone pavement She was 72 years of age One son Samuel T Davies is a mer I I chant at Nebraska City another Rev F G Davies Is pastor of the First Baptist Bap-tist church at Ottumwa la None of the remains of those lost I have been recovered The four walls I of the big building remain intact and fire is still burning in the basement j I In that appalling mass of blu k ned debris lie the bodies of the victims The local board of insurance agents estimate the total property I cc at 3225000 insurance 133000 The report that G D Albert a violin 1st and brother of the famous pianist is missing proves unfounded He was not in the building at the tinv and has 1 been located i |
