Salt Lake Telegram | 1903-05-07 | Page 1 | Twenty-Five Men Escape from What Firemen Say Was Veritable Fire-Trap

' : ' 'n -J; i-i ' : 1 : i ---v. T7 a rjr -y. rt-X tt ... "-1 ; ,jhi. Vv'iilAll: ii'lll ; ..... . v V'iiiidl filiJ)jL,J- A-iuJMuM - ,1 . . . . " llt?.!i Lcf lir-IIousc ; Dc-' Dc-' strcyed by Explcdinf : Imp;. Sleepirj In-, In-, mates Awakened by Proprietor in Time. W lamp explosion in the office of the Tjih lodging-house, 263 South Fifth West street, ignited that place a few minutes after 5 o'clock this morning, and endangered the live of the twenty-five twenty-five or thirty men who were sleeping in the building at the time. .William , B.. Sutton, . the proprietor, who had arisen a few minutes before 5 o'clock, went to the kitchen and started a. fire in the range. Returning to the combination office and lounging-room, he saw It in flames. He quickly aroused the sleeping men In .the rooms on the second floor and then telephoned an alarm to the fire department. de-partment. Xlajnes Spread Rapidly. Befojre1 the firemen could arrive on " the scene the flames had spread so that . the entire place was In flames when the firemen began to work upon it. Firebrands were carried to nearby buildings by the draught, and several Incipient blazes In the immediate neighborhood neigh-borhood were discovered and extinguished. extin-guished. . ; . . All the men who were In the building and who were awakened by Mr. Sutton had time to dress and secure their most valuable personal effects before leaving the building. As soon as the flames had eaten through the-ffice partition and celling tley spread quickly through the entire buVgTJig, ruining practically all the con- ,44fS. '' .... - . , Firemen f ajr It "Was Fire-Trap. The firemen declare the building to have baen a veritable flretrap, built of the moft Inflammable material and in a flimsy manner. : . T - They expressed surprise that no one v.-as-oaught by the fire, and either Injured In-jured or cremated.- 'They state that bad the fire gained a good head before its discovery, loss of life would have been almost inevitable. ' Loss Is Not Large: , The building, a two-story brick and frame, was owned by William Butter-worth, Butter-worth, and was valued at $3000. The contents are valued at $2000. and there is insurance -op the contents for $800. The loss sustained was $700 on the building and. $500 on the contents. ' The brick portion of the structure was not seriously injured beyond several sev-eral bad cracks which were caused by the heat. .