Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1887 — LIVES LOST BY FIRE. [ARTICLE]

LIVES LOST BY FIRE.

Flames Speedily Destroy the Hotel and Other Buildings at Buffalo. Thirty Persons Believed to Have Been Burned to Death, and Many Badly Injured. (Buffalo special.] Another calamity has visited The splendid new Richmond Hotel, at thn comer of Main aud Eagle streets, was totally destroyed by fire early Friday morning,, together with St. James Hall and other adjacent property. The most distressful part of the disaster is the loss of several human lives. At this writing it is impossible to say just how many persons are killed and injured, but the number is large. The rapidity of the fire, cutting off all means of escape, led some persons to leap for life from the windows. Others got down the fire-escapes or on Hayes ladders raised by the fire department. The shrieks and cries of the poor people in the upper stories of the burning structure were heartrending. One man, mad with terror, leaped from a third-story window, and was picked up from the stone 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. Many of the wounded were taken to Carney’s saloon, and afterward to hospitals. Robert Stafford, Sr., proprietor of the hotel, with his wife, occupied rooms on the second floor, and had a narrow' escape. Terror overcame everybody, and even those who escaped in safety were in many cases prostrated by their awful experiences. There were 125 persons in the hotel, seventy of whom weretransient guests, eight boarders, and the remainder porters, bell-boys, the families of the proprietors, and clerks. Twentytwo of these were rescued from the windows by the firemen, twenty-two are at the hospitals, and a large number made their escape by other means. There is no doubt that at least thirty lives were sacrificed. The spread of the flames is said to have been frightful in their rapidity. The elevator shaft served as a flue for the flames, and they rushed up to the top floor in a very few moments. As the guests were roused and saw the interior exits cut off they turned to the windows. They could be seen in their night-clothes, standing out clear and vivid before (he lurid background of the flames. Their screams were horrible to hear, and they could be heard for blocks. The flames spread to the southeast side of the hotel first. 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. Perhaps the most thrilling escape of any was that of Pres Whittaker, step-son of Proprietor Stafford. He roomed in the fifth story, and when aroused stepped to the window and looked down for a few seconds. Then he deliberately dressed himself and, emerging from the window, stood on the stone capping above the window beneath. From this capping be stepSed to the next one along the front of the uilding, and proceeded in this manner to the Hayes truck ladder at the other extremity of the front. The nerve and coolness displayed were remarkable. Five girls who roomed on the fifth floor made a rope out of the bedclothes and hung it out of the window; but none of them seemed to have the courage to start. At last one of the 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 dowm. She had gone but a little distance when the rope parted, and down she went four stories. Strange to say, she W’as not killed. Her legs were terribly cut and bruised, her back badly injured, and her face and arms were in a frightful condition from burns. She lay moaning upon a lounge at the Spencer House, begging to be sent home. Her name is said to be Mary Connell.