Show I i A HOTEL HADES i i I I A Sea of Flame Sweeps Through a Crowded Hotel and the Guests Die in Agony I Scenes of Horror 3Iany Persons Cremated Ii Cre-mated Lofty Leaps for Life Crushed and Mangled Forms I The Elevator Spreads tht Flames The St James Hall Included In the Destructive Conflagration cath and Destruction BUFFALO MarchlS The Richmond Hotel and St James Hall were burned arly this morning Tho loss is fully half a million dollars A number of livf are reported lost and many injured The building was situated on the corner ot Main and Eagle streets and extending through to Washington Washing-ton street The fire was discovered at 330 this morning in the new Richmond Hotel The alarm was sounded and the fire department de-partment roponded promptly Tho house contained a large number of guests and their heartrending shrieks could plainly be heard Ladders were raised as soon as possible and as many as could were taken out but a large number of them were unable to effect their escape At 4 oclock the entire Richmond Hotel St James Hall and other property in the block were doomed to speedy destruction destruc-tion The whole place burned like tinder The corridor in the center of the building acted at a great funnel and as the the flames streamed upwards the guests found themselves them-selves imprisoned by walls of fire The screams of the unfortunates could be heard for blocks and at many of the windows they could be seen in their night clothes calling wildly for help At one of the third floor windows two guests were seen by the crowd to fall back into the flames One man jumped from the fifth floor to the roof of the twostory wooden building adjoining He was seriously injured The number of those injured is not exactly known The Hon W W Barse of Olean New York was terribly burned about the hands and wrists A number of insurance men were in the building and several of thorn were badly injured Among them are W J McKay of Niagara Falls C W Dubois of Syracuse W S Dewey of Rochester who escaped with bad bums and Clinton Bid well of Pittsburgh badly burned At the hospitals are Charles Davis of New York hands and feet badly burned H B Smith of the North British Insurance Company of New York hands and feet burned and Edward Whelan of New York hands in a terrible condition They are probably not fatally injured The Fitch hospital contains eight men and one woman All are in a bad condition and more or less seriously injured All are from out of town except the woman Two of the injured are at the Sisters hospital There are also four of the injured at the general hospital The rapidity of the fire cutting off the means of escape led some persons to lead for life from the windows Others cot down the fireescapes or on ladders lad-ders raised by the fire department The shrieks and cries of the poor people in the upper stories of the burning struc ure were heartrending One man mad with terror leaped from a third story window and was picked up from the stono sidewalk on Main street a mangled and bleeding corpse Several who succeeded in making their escape were badly injured and burned and some of these will probably die Others more fortunate escaped with slight injuries It is now believed that at least twelve persons were burned to death There were 1U3 persons in the hotel 70 of whom were transient guests eight boarders and the remainder porters bellboys and the families of the proprietors and clerks Twentytwo of these were rescued res-cued from the windows by firemen Twentytwo are at the hospitals A large number made their escape by various means The origin of the fire is not as yet known William H Alport the night clerk says the fire started in the cloakroom under main stairway at 350 a m There was nobody no-body up but myself the night porter and the bell boy I pulled all four of the fire alarms on the different floors and the people came flying downstairs down-stairs in their right clothes The fire followed fol-lowed the elevator and inside of five minutes min-utes it reached the top floor I rushed out of doors after doing all I could Bellboy Plnmmer tells experience os follows I was dusting the reading room when I heard a shout and saw flames coming up the stairway from the basement Mr Alport and I turned on the hose under the main stairway We straightened the hose out and turned the valve but the water would not run Then we gave the alarm The watchman and I got a plank and broke open the Eagle street entrance to the hotel Then we got the plank under the fire escape off Eagle street and helped people down I think there were about 84 guests in the house The spread of the flames was frightful in its rapidity The elevator shaft served as a flue for the flames and the whole structure was enveloped in a few moments As the guests were aroused and saw the interior exit cut off they turned to the windows They could be seen standing stand-ing out clear and vivid before the lurid background of flames Their screams were horrible to hear and they could be heard for blocks The firemen did noble work and confined the fire to the narrow limits of the three buildings named Their work of rescue had many exciting incidents inci-dents The telegraph wires were as usual in the way of the ladder brigade and much valuable time was lost in get tim ladders past them The fire which was under control by 5 oclock was confined to the building already mentioned the saloon of James Creighton and the cigar store of J C Palario ou Main street H noV no-V Altshul of New York assisted a number of women from the burning building He then made his own escape by leaping from one building to another until he reached the corner of Washington and North Division street and thus gained the street William J Mann one of the proprietors of the house and his wife had a thrilling experience in getting out Mrs Mann was terribly burned about the head arms and legs Their little daughter Jennie was also badly burned I Five girls who roomed on the fifth floor made a rope out of bedclothes and i hung out of the window but none seemed to I last of the I have courage to start At one five took hold and swung down to a window ledge from which she was rescued Three others came down in the same manner and then the fifth girl started down She had but a little distance when the gone parted and down she went rope four stories Strange to say she not killed Her legs were terribly bruised was her back badly injured and her face condition from and arms were in a frightful bums Mark Osborne day clerk and assistant manager of the hotel is missing It is believed he perished Wm A Haven of Helena Montana is burned about the hands feet and face and is suffering from the shock He is Chief Engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad third K H Humes occupied room on the electric I floor Ho was awakened by bells and after arousing several people on the same floor jumped through the window to the kitchen roof there everything was in roof He flams Others were on the same made a rush for the Eacle street door going through the kitchen skylight and out through the flames and escaped Ho I left five persons on the kitchen roof and thinks they all must have perished as thay I did not attempt to follow him through the flames Four are dead among those who I jumped from the building William Purcell a broker of this city an unknown man and I two unknown women I |