Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1901 — BIG FIRE KILLS MANY. [ARTICLE]

BIG FIRE KILLS MANY.

Flames Kage In a Philadelphia Furniture Factory. A fire in which ifaany persons lost their lives and many more were seriously and perhaps fatally injured, occurred Friday in the heart of the business section of Philadelphia. The nine-story building at 1219-1221 Market street, occupied by Hunt, Wilkinson & Co., upholsterers and furniture dealers, and two unoccupied buildings at 1223 and 1225 Market street, were destroyed. Many other buildings were damaged,'and the loss is. estimated to be upward of $500,000. The fire started at 10:30 o’clock. It is supposed to have been caused by an explosion of benzine or naphtha, which, with other materials used in the manufacture of furniture, was stored in the cellar. The flames shot up the elevator shaft and in less than five minutes every one of the nine floors of the structure was ablaze. There were 320 employes, men and women, at work in the different departments at the time. Instantly there was a wild rush for the ft’re escapes, but owing to the, highly inflammable nature of the material used by the firm, the blaze spread with remarkable rapidity, dealing death to the unfortunates as they made frantic but unsuccessful efforts to escape. One woman leaped from one of the top floors into Market street and was instantly killed. Another was roasted to death as she was descending the fire escape in the rear of the building. Two others either jumped or fell from the fire escape and were killed. Five others who leaped from windows were picked up living, but they died on the way to the hospital. While the fire escape was filled with the panicstricken men and women the wall collapsed, and eight persons are known to have been buried in the ruins. A few minutes later the front wall fell inward. When the firemen reached the rear of the building, which faces on Commerce street, a small thoroughfare, they found the street literally piled up with victims who had been carried down by the falling wall. Stories conflict as to the number of persons killed. When the rear wall of the building fell a number of bodies were lying in the small street in the rear variously estimated at from six to thirty, and these were covered with hundreds of tons of brick and twisted iron. Eye witnesses say the flames spread with remarkable rapidity. Employes who started down the fire escape in the rear of the building before the flames were visible from the street, were compelled to jump before they had traveled two stories, because of the flames breaking through the windows. Npts were spread in the front and rear of the building and some who jumped were saved in this way. A woman jumped from one of the windows of the Market street front, but the smoke blinded her and she missed the net, striking the pavement and dying instantly. In the rear a young girl who jumped from one of the top stories caught on the fire escape at the third story and the flames, bursting from the window, burned her body to a crisp in almost a minute. Although the structure was fireproof, it was filled from cellar to roof with highly inflammable material. In a few minutes flames were bursting from every window and it was impossible for the firemen to assist those in the burning building.