Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1909 — SIXTY MISSING AFTER FIRE IN LONDON SHOP [ARTICLE]

SIXTY MISSING AFTER FIRE IN LONDON SHOP

Christmas Purchasers Forced to Leap Out of Windows. ,, London, Dec. 21. —Fifty to sixty employes of the department store of Arding ft Hobbs are missing and it is feared many of them are dead in the ruins as a result of a fire which gutted the store. It is estimated that the monetary loss will foot $5,000,000. Several hundred persons were in the store making Christmas purchases when the fire broke out. Its progress was so rapid that many persons were compelled to jump from the windows, alighting in burning debris. Those who were not injured by jumping were burned in the blazing rubbish in which they landed. Foremost in the work of removing decorations which caused the fire to spread to other buildings was John Burns, the labor leader and cabinet officer, whose home is close to the scene of the fire. He organized a gang of helpers who removed the-festoons and hauled down the l Venetian poles that supported them. Afterwards he headed a bucked brigade which threw water on the front of the buildings that were menaced.