Show LOST i IN nm HOTEL unfortunate guests of fort wayne ind hotel cut off by flames from elevator and stairway F re department rescued many of the entrapped guests by means of ladders but many leaped to the paved streets and were fatally injured fort wayne ind at least 12 per sons lost their lives in a fire that destroyed the new aveline hotel here early sunday the entire interior of the building Is a smoldering heap of ruins and how many dead are con cealey by the debris can only be con lectured the hotel register was consumed y the fire and there are no accurate means of determining who are missing the complete destruction ot of the in perlor of the hotel makes the work nork ot of recovering bodies a difficult task A confused heap of charred wood bricks and twisted girdles is piled up between the bare walls to the second story piece by piece this must be removed before the roll of the dead can be completed some of the bod bad les tal en out are mangled and charred beyond recognition the fire was discovered at 3 30 a in in the elevator shaft by night clerk ralph hopkins he rushed rubbed to the upper floors alarming the guests until the flames which had spread appalling rapidity drove him back his efforts however saved many lives the hotel was erected halt half a century ago and the woodwork was dry as tinder it burned like matchwood and within a few minutes from the time the fire was discovered the whole interior of the hotel was a mas mass s of flames that filled the corri dors and rooms with suffocating clouds of smoke and laid fiery bar alers across all means of escape save by the windows the fire department rescued many people by means of ladders but some frenzied by the onward rusa of the flames leaped from high windows to the paved street the new aveline avelino hotel was a six story building of brick in the business center of the city its erection was begun in 1852 but it was not completed until several years later in 1895 the building was ex ten ton remodeled and two st stories were added the hotel and furnish ings were valued at within a quarter of an hour from the time the fire was discovered in the elevator thant practically the entire building was in flames the whole interior became a roaring furnace and from basement to roof all was blazing at once in rapid succession toe the floors fell to the basement carrying their toll of dead |