Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1875 — THE HOLYOKE HORROR. [ARTICLE]

THE HOLYOKE HORROR.

Some Particulars and Touching Incidents of the Terrible Disaster. Spbihgeteld, Mass., May 28. The hero of the disaster was John Lynch, a brave fireman, who was the first to respond to the alarm. He described the scene, when he reached the burning church, as appalling. Wedged tight and immovable in the doorways was a dense mass of humanity from six to eight feet in height, none of them being able to stand upright from the terrible pressure of the crowd behind, while upon and over them a sheet of flame rolled like a wave, streaming far out into the open air. Without a moment’s pause to consider their danger, Lynch and Chief-Engineer Mullen rushed into the flames, spurred on by the Siteous cries: “ For God’s sake, come and elp us!” and began pulling out the boaies. A moment later and a well-di-rected hydrant stream from the Mount Holyoke hose struck the brave rescuers, and undoubtedly saved them from being burnt alive. The first persons drawn out were burning, but they were passed directly through the stream of water and the flames were extinguished. Borne of the poor creatures fell fainting on the long flight of wooden stairs leading down to the street, and a few were able to walk. By this time the entire fire department had arrived, and worked with such energy and will that when the fire was extinguished the charred wooden walls of the structure were standing and were pulled down by the hook and ladder men, in order that search for the bodies might be made. Only a verv few moments, comparatively, elapsed after the water struck the building before the fire was out, but the destruction to life during that brief period was terrible. Wild efforts were made by the people to rush pell-mell into the burning building to rescue their friends, and it was with difficulty that they were kept back. This was particularly the case with parents who had on the first impulse rushed from the church to save their own lives, but who, remembering that they had left their children behind to perish, returned impetuously. Actual personal violence had to be used in several cases to keep the women back. All about the streets men, women and children were watching and piteously inquiring if their friends had been saved. One woman was positive that her husband had perished, and could only be quieted by the assurance from a friend that he had just been walking with him. One of the most touching cases was that of two little girls about twelve years of age, who rushed for the entrance of the building while the fire was at its height, thinking to find their father and mother, who were within. They could only be restrained by an officer, who took them in his arms. The church was erected in 1870, entirely of pine, about 100 feet long by sixty wide, two stories high, with galleries on the sides and the north end about twenty-five feet wide. There were two doors in the north end and the vestibule, from which two doors opened into the body of the church. The galleries opened into the vestibule. At the rear end was another door, by which a few persons escaped. Immediately upon the breaking out of the flames all the occupants of the galleries rushed to the east door, and, falling upon one another, choked up the doorway with their bodies, piled in all ways, seven or eight deep. Here most of the lives were lost From this mass Chief Mullen rescued one young woman, after having taken off two dead bodies from above her. The Chief and others had their clothes almost burned from them, and were badly burned about the hands. One woman jumped from the highest window down upon the front steps, breaking her arm. A man with two children in his arms jumped from a window and escaped. One poor woman, enveloped in flames, shrieked out: “For God’s sake, save me,” and was dragged out. Some sprang from the gallery windows and were seriously injured, and one person appeared at a window completely wrapped in flames, and after tottering there an instant fell" to the ground dead and unrecognizable. Hundreds of men went to the wreck as soon as an opportunity was offered to search for bodies, and a force of police was organized to keep back the large crowd which had gathered. The greater number of bodies were found in the fatal stairway, burned, some of them, to a crisp. The body of one woman was found in the seat which she had occupied, her clothing entirely burned off. A fleshy woman, weighing about 180 pounds, was dragged screaming from the mass. She was carried a short distance from the church and placed on the grass, while her flesh actually peeled on her back, and in a moment she fell over dead. The scenes last night and to-day in the school-house basement, where the bodies of the dead were carried, were heartrending in the extreme. In some instances the features were distorted, as though extreme agony had been suffered before death, but many looked as calm as though smothered. All were blackened with smoke; some were burned beyond a possibility of identification, nothing remaining but the trunk. Louis Desjerdin, fifty-four years old, whose wife and daughter were both burned to death, became insane to-day from grief, and cried Continually in agonizing tones: “ Oh, my Julie!my Julie!” Some were taken out alive wbo were under others who were dead, and owed to this fact their own salvation. One of the most protracted cases of suffering was that of Mary Desjardin, wbo was burned past all recognition and blinded. She somehow found her way to the hill north of the church and wandered around there about twenty minutes before she was found and taken to her home, where she died about eleven o’clock this morning, having lingered fifteen hours in fearful agony. The fate of Amminie Menaer and her lover was a touching event of the fire. She was the organist for the evening in the absence of the regular one, and was cut off from escape when the church was burned. Her lover escaped, but finding that she was still within turned to rescue her, was overcome with the flames, and perished with her. —lt was discovered that a deaf man carried off the honors at a spelling-match. Sympathizing with his infirmity the enunciator had given the champion the words to be spelled on a slip of paper. After the exposure by a man who was all ears the success of the deaf man was nob so pronounced.—if. 0. Republican.