Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1906 — FIRE IN ST. LOUIS. [ARTICLE]

FIRE IN ST. LOUIS.

Flames Cause Death ami Panic In Salvation Army Hotel. The Lighthouse hotel, a three-story structure at Xiuth and Market streets, St, Louis, utilized as a Salvation Army barracks, was damaged by fire early Wednesday, when probably 500 homeless men were lodged within it. Six lost their, lives and probably thirty-five were injured, about half that number being seriously injured, some not being expected to live. The fire started on the third floor and swept through the old building rapidly. Men fought at the windows to secure the life-linfe and slide to the street, but so great was the frenzy with which the ropes were seized and held that they were of little avail and those who could not escape by the stairway leaped from the windows. A large number of those who jumped were caught in nets, but many jumped before the nets were stretched and were injured. There was only one stairway and the panic stricken men surged down this stairway to the street, only to find the door locked. A jam resulted and probably a great loss of life would have" oecurrd had not firemen promptly burst the door open, permitting the frenzied men to pour but into the street. The cause of the 6re has not been ascertained. The building was a three-story structure and the majority of the lodgers were on the upper floors. At every window could be seen' the forms of half-naked men, calling to firemen in terror, and a few moments later leaping from the burning building to be crashed on the sidewalk below. Life lines, fastened at windows, provided means of escape for scores of the 500 lodgers.