People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1894 — A DEATH TRAP. [ARTICLE]

A DEATH TRAP.

Sixteen Person* Burned to * Crisp at .Seattle, Wash. Seattle, Wash., Oct. 30. A fire, which resulted in the death of at least sixteen persons and the injury of three others, broke out in the West street hotel, at Columbia and West streets, about 1 o'clock Saturday morning. At 8 o’clock the fire was under control and. an investigation of the ruins was made. Thirteen bodies have been identified. They are as follows: John F. Anderson, aged 28: F. Ballmam. C. Grahm. laborer: Mrs. J. H. Hancock, of Rolfe, la., and her three children, two girls, aged e and 2 years, and a boy aged 4; Mrs. J. W. Huff man, wife of a well-known farmer of Fall City, Wash.: Angus McDonald, M. McSoAey. Andrew Otterman. aged 18; Mrs. Otterman, of California, his mother; C. Wilson. A. G. Butler, brother of the proprietor, is missing. Richard Havin was badly injured about the head and back by jumping; D. B. Glass had a leg broken and his back injured, and C. B. Anderson was burned and badly bruised. The fire was undoubtedly caused by the explosion of a lamp in the kitchen. The proprietor’s son was aroused by the noise of the explosion about 1 o'clock, but before he could investigate the flames had spread all through the house. The corrugated iron sheeting kept the flames hid until nearly the whole interior was a furnace. The thin partitions were of resinous pine covered with cheesecloth and burned furiously. The sixty guests were aioused and the rush for life followed. The arrangement of the halls of the

hotel made such a labyrinth in the daytime one unfamiliar with the place would have had difficulty in finding his way about without several attempts, and as the halls were filled with smoke there was little chance for any of the victims to make their way out before suffocating. Some of the lodgers were asleep and were overtaken in bed, while others rushed into the halls and were suffocated and burned.