Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1910 — 30MENLOSE LIVES IN BIG HOLOCAUST [ARTICLE]

30MENLOSE LIVES IN BIG HOLOCAUST

Fatal Fire at Chicago Stock Yards. CHIEF HORAN A VICTIM Walls Blown Out By Terrific Explosions of Ammonia, FIREMEN BURIED UNDER DEBRIS Rescuers Stopped by Heat and Ammonia Fumes.

Chicago, Dec. 23. —Thirty brave men lost their lives in a fire which destroyed the packing plant of Nelson Morris & Co., at the Union stockyards here. The dead include Ftre Marshal James Horan, Second Assistant Marshal William J. Burroughs, Capt. Dennis Boyle, Capt. P. E. Collins, Lieut. James D. Fitzgerald, twenty other city firemen and five employes of the stockyards. Scores of others were more or less seriously injured. At 9 o’clock last night nineteen bodies had been recovered, but the remains of Marshal Moran were still burled under the mass of ruins. Hundreds of firemen fought desperately tn the smoking ruins to find the body of Horan. When darkness came on the firemten worked by electric light fighting the blaze, which had broken out anew searching the wreckage for the body of the dead chief. The last corner of the' immense building, which covered an entire block, took fire shortly after darkness, and flames swept up 150 feet in the air. Mayor Busse started for the stockyards late, going to the scene of the fire for the third time. He said he would take personal charge of the search for Chief Horan’s body and of an investigation into the cause of the failure of the water pressure. In fear that the remaining walls would fall, Acting Chief Seyferlich removed his firemen from the more unstable portions of the structure, while a large force of police kept the crowd at a safe distance. *; Extreme efforts were made by the firemen to prevent the blaze from spreading and Acting Chief Seyferllch hoped to be able to confine it to the Morris plant and save the valuable buildings adjacent. At midnight last night the fire bad been burning twenty hours. Meanwhile the city council held a special meeting to plan relief for the families of the victims and to aid investigation demanded. Estimates of the financial loss run to 11,000.000 and even higher. The thirty men killed in the fire were crushed to death when the east wall fell, carrying down upon them tons of bricks, timbers and iron work and a heavy wooden canopy under which they had been standing.Scores of other firemen were injured and some are dying in the hospitals. The fire was the greatest disaster in the history of the Chicago fire department, and the worst horror in Chicago since the Iroquois fire, seven years ago. Terrific explosions of ammonia in the beef cold storage section of the building sent a heavy canopy crashing down on the squad 6f firemen who were working on a loading platform The fatalities all occurred in one place on the loading platform. Following this more alarms were sent In until 100 streams of water were poured on the blaze. Away up in the roof of the structure, _ near a point directly over the loading platform on which stood Fire Chief Horan, Burroughs, his assistant, Lieut Fitzgerald and a score of others, there was a sudden sharp. loud report Portions of the mason of the building Ifell away and a large part of this fell on the canopy, tearing it away and bearing it to the platform, which was crushed like an egg shell with its human freight . : Immediately afterward huge flames sprang up and the , buried men bad no chance for thtir lives. Scores of firemen rushed to the rescue but were driven back by the intense heat and the deadly fumes of the ammonia. One after another was overcome and fell to the ground. Meanwhile the walls fell on the various

sides of. the building and buried firemen who were near. The building that was destroyed was the principal beef house of the Morris plant It adjoined on the south the building in which are the main offices of the company and was the largest of the Morris group of structures. It was six stories high. Despite the fact that they knew that the bodies of the victims were buried under the brick pile firemen who were not engaged in rescue work directed streams of water into the burning building Many of them went about with tears streaming' down their cheeks, overcome with grief at the fate of their chief and his subordinates who had perished. Scenes of pathos occurred when relatives of the victims reached the scene of the disaster. Many; had been noti fled by telephone by friends, and upon arriving an the stock yards pushed their way through the crow ds of curt ous spectators to the smoldering pile where the bodies of the dead firemen were buried, . . Mrs. Horan was notified of the death of her husband by Battalion shies Ed ward McGurn of the Ninteenth bat talion When he delivered his mes sage the chief’s widow’ collapsed and had to be carried to. her room. She became-hysterical and a physician Was summoned. She is in a serious condition. The flames spread so rapidly that the firemen were unable to save the plant. The entire stock yards district was threatened at one time The fire is still burning furiously with 700 men fighting it. Word has been received from the stock yards that the fire had burred through the wjall protecting all the warehouses of' Morris & Co. and the flames were ex pected to jump to these structures a 1 any moment. A strong wind is fanning the flames and every available fire company in the city has been sent io the yards in an endeavor to check the spread of the flames.