Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1895 — DIED IN THE FLAMES. [ARTICLE]

DIED IN THE FLAMES.

HORRID FATE OF MANY IN A HOTEL FIRE. Gumry House at Denver Wrecked by an Explosion at Midnight-Guests Caught in the Ruins—Fire Break* Out ‘and Firemen Forced to Retreat. An Awful Tale. The Gumry Hotel, at Denver, Oslo., was wrecked by a terrific explosion at 12:10 a. m. Monday. The rear half of the building, g five itory brick and atone structure, went down with a crash. The hotel was crowded with guests and between forty and fifty of them were killed, as well as the entire force of hotel employes, who were sleeping in the portion of the building which fell. No meals were served In the hotel and every guest entered on the register occupied a room In the hotel Sunday, most of them late at night, the list being as follows: Mrs. O. H. Knight, Lake City. Mrs. Knight’s sons. J. I. Kirk, Omaha. J. 0. Brown,Omaha. Bud Buren, Colorado Springs. J. W. Roberts and wife, Colorado Springs. MiBS Jennie Haword, Boston. Mrs. 0. W. Williams, Boulder. Mis* Hattie H. Williams, Boulder. W. C. McClain, Huron, Kan. Mrs. McClain and child, Huron, Kan. Henry 81oan, Huron, Kan. Mrs. Henry Sloan, Huron, Kan. George Burle, Colorado Springs. B. T. McClosky, Qripple Creek, Colo. F. French, Central City, Colo. B. Lorah, Central City, Colo. W. J. Corson, Pueblo. M. E. Letson, Denver. Probably Bixty Killed.

At 3 a. m. Monday only fifteen persons who are known to have been in the building at the time of the explosion are accounted for. This leaves sixty supposed to be dead. Henry Sloan and wife, of Huron, Kan., and W. 0. McClain, cashier of the Huron State Bank, are among those taken down by ladders, and are all more or less Injured. On both sides of Lawrence, from 17th to 18th street, and on Larimer, directly back of the Gumry, the plate-glass windows of the business houses were blown In and a number of pedestrians were injured by falling glass. The fronts of many buildings in the vicinity were badly wrecked. The hotel structure, for 100 feet along the alley and extending 76 feet toward the front, is a mass of debris. Brick and plaster piled in heaps twenty feet high, and from this mass of wreckage could be heard the moans of the injured and dying. The cause of the explosion is uncertain, but it is supposed that the battery of boilers in the hotel basement must have exploded. The sound of the explosion was heard throughout the city, awakening people in bed a mile from the scene. A cloud of dust was thrown a thousand feet in the air, and, as there was not a breath of wind, it hung in the air like a huge column. Minute atoms of powdered brick and giortar descended like gentle snow. At 12:50 the ruins began burning fiercely and the firemen were obliged to retreat from the work of rescue. Every engine in the city was pouring streams into the mass, but the flames could not be possibly got under control before the injured were cremated.

As their chances of escape lessened the cries of the imprisoned people were increased, heartrending shrieks rising from every portion of the great mass’of wreckage. During the height of the excitement a team ran away on 18th street, stampeding the great crowd of spectators. A number of people were more or less injured by being trampled upon and falling in tho broken glass which covered the streets and sidewalks in every direction. Electric-light wires dangling from broken poles in the alley added fresh peril to the firemen. One horse was burned by coming in contact with a live wire. Two injured women had been almost extricated from the ruins when the flames approached so close that the rescuers had to abandon them for safety. The bodies of three women were also to be seen in the back part of the building, but could not be reached. Hardly had the firemen got fairly at work when they were forced to retreat. Proprietors of the Hotel Killed. Among the dead are Peter Gumry and R. 0. Grenier, the proprietors of the hotel, the day clerk and the night clerk, none of whose bodies have been found. Immediately after the explosion occurred a baby was heard wailing in the corner of a room which had nearly all fallen away. Its parents had gone down with the first crash. Afterward the little one’s cries became weaker and weaker, and when the flames shot up into the skeleton of the building it became silenced. The firemen made a brave effort to save a woman caught in the debris of the north corner of the hotel, but were forced to abandon the attempt. The Gumry Hotel was a five-story brickwith stone front, and was built about six years ago. It was of the better kind of second-class hotels, catering largely to transient family patronage. Thus many women and children were among the guests. The building was put np as the Eden Musee by the widow of Gen. Tom Thumb, and was so occupied for several years, later being remodeled for use as a hotel. Gumry and Grenier have owned the hotel for several years. Mr. Gumry was a prominent contractor and had done much of the work during the building of the State capitoi. Mr. Grenier acted in the capacity of manager.