The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 23, 1898, Page 1

The Call U pe taken ff'Om the leraf-y ABE e = " VOLUME I \\\IV —N (). 176, SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1898. "PRICE FIVE CENTS. Appalling THE BALDWIN HOTEL BLOCK ENTIRELY GUTTED BY FIRE Conflagration in the Very Heart of the City. CAPTAIN A. J. WHITES FEAREFUIL DEATH. Many Others Are Believed to Have Per- ished —-Wild Scenes of Panic. s morni danger e at the scene the bui ndous fire, having its is street side of the Bald ladders of the firemen were standin one life was The woman who was endous ct While this a At the street. cene as the side wall on th >med as if the very heavens twisted an 2 4-. 0 H +E+E+ It has c The Bs Hotel, which for years been looked upon as a fire-trap, burst into flames early this morning, and becoming a mass of charred is rapidly and blackened ruins. It was a few minutes after 3 o’clock this morning when the alarm came in, and even as the bell clanged it out the skies lit up with the flash of the burn- 1ilding. The fire started in the kitchen near the well between the hotel and theater, and springing upward, it was soon leaping high from the roof. It like the wind and from a single torch like flare it ran along the walls until it was a sheet of flame. The hotel alarm, a contrivance sup- posed to warn the sleeping guests f their danger, was rung and rung again, | ing spread o but it needed all the E a score of attendants could give to rou: the inmates. They ran screaming up | and down the hall, kicking at rooms and yelling to the people to fly. Within a few minutes the halls in the upper floor were full of smoke, and | into this the frightened guests plunged the stairway. Men half dressed dragging Irantic women, .reaming wives and shouting hus- people bearing burdens of all | and all with staring eyeés and and made for gar and flung themselves down. Through the office they rushed, and out into the stre but the flames fol- Jowed them so fast they licked the | s of the nying women and made | bundles in sk the men drop their last their rush for safety. Lines of ho were hurried up the rs, L=t the flames soon beat the men back, and then the police ing, and they fought | ed the by ym the outside. Higher and higher the flames leaped until they enveloped the cupola on the corners and hid the sky with their sioke—and then in the midst of it all | people began to crawl from the win- dows far up near the roof and scream frantically for the fire escape. The crowds groaned, and the men | shouted and called to one another to go up and save them, and the flames | red for th the street turned r victims until the peo- their heads e on away and waited. yme women were seen on the Mar- | ket-street side, standing in a window and screeching for help. They were far above the reach of Jadders, and there seemed no hope un- til a man appeared beside them with a rope and ‘arted to let them down to the firemen just below him on the of those that were within the structure. 1st the sky and the seething mass of crimson flam 2g mouths made for the stairway | B+ u+ lding was hopelessly lost. origin in the kit hen, win Hotel. as ivable rapidity placed with inconc ved from the building. each resounding crash told of the crumbling of the great structure on Eddy and Market streets. what clothes they could gather and the hasty warning of approaching death and the waters of the engines were plying ineffectually upon the terriblegg that ate the heart out of the building. :n minutes to five o’clock part of the two upper stories of the Baldwin Hotel crashed outward and a tremendous sheet of .fame deme.ndea to and at each moment it seemed as if e Powell-street -idc were falling in sparks. In a very few minutes the firemen were of the building crashed to t..e ground was magnificent. From adjoining buildings stream after stream was poured upon the burning buildin~ t of water seemed to add fury to the flames, and great masses of black smole arose to serve only as a backeround for new jets of living fire that turned and licked the superstructure until it crumbled and spread in ~littering mas: Thr re has never been in San Francisco a conflagration of such dramatic interest where the lives of so many men and women were involved and where scaped unscathed from a furnace that raged upward until the very sky itself seemed in flames. +8+E+E+ R+ E SR R The most tremendous conflagration that has ever happened in San Francisco burst forth in the Baldwin Hotel shortly ym the very interior of the building a shaft of fire ascended with tremendous volume, and the sky burst forth into thou- ed inmates of the hotel rushed from the building and crash after crash was heard as explosives in the theater told the origin of The flames roared and twisted and mounted scores of feet above the building, and long before attacked what is known as the Baldwjn annex, and then spread with inconceivable rapidity to- at the scene, and on Ellis street they saw the figure of a woman she sought, almost a hundred feet above the ground, to escape with her life. gainst the side of the building. The shadowy figures of men mounted the ladders. g on the very verge of the tremendous fiery furnace was grasped in somebody’s arms, while a thousand voices gave vent to a e had warned the thousands that had gathered around the building to retire to Powell street, and no one was injured in the crash. Flames n Powell and Ellis street, the great cupola would crumble. s of flame on the | the fourth flfmr corridors and down the | OUT OF SLEEP main stairway. Then he fastened the rope for hlmself E and commenced to descend. heavy man and the rope was stretched, snapped, and the man plunged down to the stone sidewalk. It was a guest of the hotel, A. J. White, | a well-known capitalist of this cit He was dead before they raised him | from the pavement. It burned fier »st toward the Powell- street side, and soon the police began to clear the stre-t. Then the engines drew away and pulled the hose as far toward the corner as they could. The wall was falling. It had not moved, but it was only thin shtet of flame, and as the crowds stood breathless it began to totter. It leaned already out toward the street, the sound of rending timbers rose above the roar of flames and wind and throbbing engines, and then with | a mighty crash it threw itself down into the street and lay heaped high in ruins. | On the Ellis-street side a man was { seen running along the cornice, wav- ing his hand to the crowd below and | trving to understand the frantic cries ‘ the people below sent up to him. | He passed the fire-escape again and again, but it seemed as if he had com- pletely lost his head, and to save him | Foreman Keogh of Truck 3 started up | the fire-escape, cheered by the crowd and deluged with sparks and cinders. But there were more cheers when he made his way slowly down again with | the half-crazed man with him. The building burned from the inside, and the brilllant glare lit up the win- dows one by one as it crept downward until every pane was a blaze of light, and every sach was wreathed In smoke. Down the elevator shaft it and the flames bursting through the door on the office floor warned the last loiterer in the office to be gone. There was no attempt to save the building after the fire had been fif- teen m° ‘es in control. It was a case of saving adjoining property. The theater was a mass of flare and roar and leaping flames. In the annex it seemed as If the whole block, from Powell to the gore, was doomed. There were 200 guests in the hotel and scores of servants. They say they all were warned and all got out, but about the servants up on the upper floor they are not so sure. Every door accessible was wrecked by those who ran through the halls, but the rooms away up there were many, and the fire raced like a hunted deer, fourth 1 ;or. Five of them he lowered. and these were all teken in through 80 if there were any who did not hear the cry God help them. was a mall. It| Men Women and Children A e, al came, | fire gleamed from every window and | TO FACE DEATH i Join in a Mad Race For Life. minut after 3 o'clock this morning fire broke out in the kitchen of the Baldwin Hotel on the easterly end near where the main structure joins with the annex ard spread with | such frightful .pidity that the | splendid structure, erected from the winnings of the famous race horseman, | is now a mass of seething ruins and other buildings in the vicinity are complete wrecks. The fire was first discovered by occu- pants of the upper floor, hut those who should have sounded the ala.m fled like rlrlghtened sheep, thinking only of their own safety. In a few moments the | blaze had broken through the roof, and | as the lurid flare lit up the sky the cry of “Fire, fire,” was taken up along the | street. Almost simultaneously an alarm was sounded by one of the employas, | who fortunately kept his head, and a | wild scene began inside the structure. Wild employes and wilder guests ran shrieking through the corridors and pulled terrified sleepers out of their | beds. Men, women and children came crushing and tumbling down the stairs | in mad haste—forgetful of one another and thinking only of the red-tongued demon pursuing them down the stairs. Some were fully dressed—others par- tially dressed—while all attempted to carry something down in their arms, and as is the usual case the articles saved were those which might best | have been left behind. Outside the howling, jostling mob only added to the confusion. As soon as a frightened face would appear at a window a hundred jumbled voices | | shouted unintelligible instructions, and the poor occupants of t rooms Xnew not whither to turn. Meanwhile the flames were gathering in volume, and rapiuly creeping down the elevator | and air shafts. The Fire Department soon arrivad {and two more alarms were huarriedly turaed in, but the red flara on the sky told truer than words the doom of the colossal struz-ure. Guests were scrambling down fire escapes and ladders to the accompani- ment of clinking glass and hoarse cries from the sidewalks, frenzied wives were searchii for missing husbands, and fathers and mothers were trembling | over the fate of children 1-~ behind during the flight. Thanks to the able efforts of the fire A A myriad of stars spangled into the air, B+O+E+E+E+a+ + & [ ] + B = | ] the fire and# L} -] + a + incident attracted the attention of thousands on Ellis street glass was crashing, walls were falling, floors were tumbling and the boom ot+ Men and women were rushing from the building wlth B n e L) + but streets. |and police departments turned into order and the work of fighting the flames was soon begun. chaos wasg WHEN THE FIRE BROKE OUT Panic Among the Guests. Grave Fears That Those on the Upper Floors Could Not Escape. Five minutes after the fire alarm was given the scene in the office of the hotel was one pandemonium. For some reason the lights throughout the great caravansary were extinguished, leaving the guests to grope their way through the long dark corridors and down the winding stalrs. The result was that men, women and children came tumbling d.wn into the office in all conditions of habiliments. ‘Women, who had succeeded in don- ning their dresses had the strength to reach the ground floor and then fainted. ‘Willing hands carried them to places of safety. One woman went into wildest hys- terics when she found that her little boy was not with her. She became senseless and was temporarily taken into the barber-shop. A moment later the child appeared, having been taken in charge by one of the guests. The clerk, notwithstanding the tre- mendous excitement that surrounded him, lent all the assistance and atten- tion to the police and firemen possible and hurried messengers throughout the big building to arouse any guests on the floors, from the second to the fifth, who might possibly have not been awakened by the noise. He expressed great anxiety for the safety of people on the fifth floor, from which the flames first burst. He thought that the fire and smoke in the corridors would shut off the escape of many, and that the only hope lay in the assistance of the hook and ladder companies. When asked where the fire started he saild he had not the remotest idea, but thought that it must have begun on the top floor. A guest who came from the second floor with an armful of clothes and two hats on his Lead said that it started in the parlors of the second floor and from there spread until it reached the elevator, where a fierce draft carried the flames to the inflammable upper story. This cut off all possible escape for guests by the elevators and at the same time gave the fire a tremendous start. t, | Some of the people on the first floor succeede - in saving their trunks and carried them to the‘'doorways on the opposite side of Market street, where men, womer and children were tempo- rarily camped until they gathered their wits sufficientl: to seek shelter else- where. DROPPED FROM THE THIRD STORY J. White Falls to a Horrible Death on the Pavement. A. The first fatality know curred was the horrible death of a wealthy, retired dry goods merchant named A. J. White, who had his apart- ments on the fifth floor of the hotel on the Market street side. White it was who heroically liberated ‘the three young women who were penned in the cupola. When he sought to make his own es- cape he founc the egress below the fifth floor cut off by the flames, and in a last endeavor he sought the life rope that dangled from the hall win- dows. He reached the third floor and there, while he dangled in midair, the thin rope parted and he fell with a horrid thud to the sidewalk. He was dead be- fore the firemen could pick him up. The women whose lives White died to save were Miss G. Johnson and Miss K. Richardson, For fully half an hour the women stood on the cornice of the cupola while the flames and smoke curled about them. Just without their reach was the too short ladder which truck 1 had raised in the hope of saving them. Their wild shrieks for help were drowned out by the noise of the pumping engines, but their frantic gestures expressed to the anxious crowd the agony they were undergoing. Several times they seemed about to jump in their frenzy, and at each mo- tion indicating that they were about to leap to the ground, firer. ‘1 and spec- tators would lift their voices in cries of warning and promise of help soon to come. A rope was finally secured. Brave Mr. White volunteered to perform the dangerous task of rescue and succeed- ed in his attempt, but paid for his brav- ery with his life. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner had rooms on the fifth floor on the Ellis-street side. When they heard the alarm of fire they sought to escape by the stairway, to have oc- They found their way through the | smoke to a window, and from there were rescued by means of a rope. Frank Noon, a well-known man about town, made his way to the sec- ond story and being unable to go far- ther, jumped from a window. He was seriously bruised, but his injuries are not dangerous. ‘White was formally employed by Keane Bros., the old dry goods firm on | Kearny street. He was a trusted head of a large department and remained | with the firm for a number of years. He afterward started a business in his own name opposite the house of his former employers. This was in about 1885. He retired from business about six years ago, and since that time he | has lived in ease, drawing upon the !fomme which his business netted him. He is characterized as a man who never felf a fear and on one occasion before performed a service in which he took his life in his own hands. His disposition was gentle and he pos- sessed all the traits which constitute the true man. The courage and brav- ery displaved this morning is only proof of his nobility. NARROW ESCAPE OF SOME GUESTS Well-Known People Who Were Almost Suffo- ' cated by the Flames. In the southwest corner of the fifth floor, the servants’ apartments, a dozen men and women huddled together at the windows, striving to keep away from the suffocating smoke in a des- perate effort to preserve life for a few moments longer, although there seemed no hope of escape. There was no fire escape within reach and the Ilongest ladders were too short by far. Tom Walton, captain of Engine 6, valiantly climbed up and by means of a rope rescued all he could see, but the chances are that several sank to the floor from exhaustion before their res- cue could be effected. C. R. Sabin lay sick on the top floor and was carried down by E. A. Mona- han. D. Weller, a traveling man, who was in room 444, escaped in his night clothes, and Major Whitmore of the Sixth California, who was in room 424, also had a narrow escape. Henry Frolich, a bookmaker at the racetrack, and his wife, who were in but found their way barred by flames. | room 208 on the third floor, were driven | | from their bed by the fierce burst of smoke and flames. Escape by the hall- way was impossible and they jumped from their window to a balcony sev- eral feet below and climbed down the fire escape. Sandy McNaughton, the well-known | horseman, occupied rooms 69 and 70 of | the annex. He escaped in his night- clothes just as the ceiling fell in and loses $3000 worth of property. 7. W. Freeman, manager of the Gay Coney Islaid Company. had a narrow escape from room 210. He says that| Toma Hanlon, the leading ladv. occu- pied a room on the top floor, and he fears she is lost. It was afterward learned that she had escaped. Ve S BALDWIN AND KOWALSKY SAFE They Were Dragged Hali- Stupefied From Their Rooins. Colonel Kowalsky was asleep in his rooms and was with great difficulty | awakened. His door was locked and | the rescuers were obliged to break it | in. He was found in his bed breath- | ing heavily and half stupefied, but | soon revived when brought to the air. All the splendid paintings and costly furniture and hangings of his rooms |are a total loss. “Lucky” Baldwin also had a narrow escape from perishing with his splen- did building. Amid all the din he slept peacefully until his room was broken into and he was dragged from his bed. Truly his “luck” was with him then, as few of the inmates were thoughtful enough to smash in a door for the re- li-f -f a fellow occupant. PANIC REIGNED IN THE VICINITY Denizens of Adjacent Lodg- ing Houses Rushed to the Streets in Deshabille. The entire scene about the streets surrounding the hotel was something never seen in San Francisco before. Ellis street, from Powell to Stockton, was visited by a shower of living fire | with chunks of burnt wood which had | been carried skyward by the force of | the flames until thrown back to the | earth, striking the pavements and | spreading out in a mass of fire, until | the street looked as if it had been paved with bricks of fire. When the electric lights went out in the hotel the confusion became a panic. Guests ran through the hall- ways, running against each other, sometimes throwing the weaker body down and invariably walking over the prostrate forr | Police officers could be seen running along the streets carrying valises and bundles which had been thrown from | the windows by half-crazed guests, who had evidently despaired of saving their effects. From the numerous lodging houses in the tenderloin about the hotel women rushed out on the sidewalk in anything but street promenading cos- tume. GALLANT DEED OF A TRUCKMAN One Guest Prepared to Cut His Throat to Avoid Incineration. One of the most thrilling incidents of the catastrophe was the extremely nar- row escape of A. H. Christie, one of the guests of the hotel, from th2 horrible fate of being incinerated while in the full flush of health. For fully fifteen minutes, full view of the terror-stricken multi- tude down below, on Eddy street, he crawled, or ther dragged h.mself, hither and thither along the edge of the roof of the hos elry, in a vain effort to find some avenue of safety to the thoroughfare, eighty feet beneath. During all this time futile shouting was being done by nearly every one who was a witness to the scene. He was on the Ellis street side, about twenty feet from the corner of Powell. Just below, but with its highest point at least fifteen feet beyond his reach, was a fire escape ladder. Firemen scaled this and endeavored to throw him a rope’s end, but without even a faint approach to success. After a quarter of an hour had been thus spent, E. H. Kehoe of Truck No. 3 thought of the fire escape near the eastern end of the structure, also on the Ellis-street side. He rapidly ran to the top of it, which was within a foot or two of the roof, ran westward along the roof, took hold of Christie and led him back to the fire escape and 'to safety, amid the cheers of the throng of spectators. in ‘While in his precarious perch, threatened momentarily by death in the fiery caldron that was seething and roaring just a few feet below him, Christie made a thrilling picture, silhouetted against the flamesand wild- ly and pleadingly waving his hands to those below. Of death in the abstract he had no fear, but he declared that he had de- termined to escape the torture of.being burned to death. “That fifteen minutes on the edge of that roof were the longest I or any oth- er man ever lived,” he remarked, when interviewed after his rescue. “I gave myself up for lost several timés. Once or twice I was nearly overcome by the smoke. I had an open razor in my hand, which 'I had the precaution to take when I was driven out of my room by the smoke.” “What did you expect to do with the razor?” he was asked. “What do you suppos~? To finish my- self, of course. If I saw that I was a goner. You don’t think that I wanted to be roasted in the furnace.” He added that he had occupied room 514 on the fifth floor of the hotel. He was awakened by the smoke pour- ing into his apartment. All the ordi- nary avenues of escape were then cut off, so he made his way to the roof, with the result described. He is a traveler for the Milwaukee firm of Abel & Bach, manufacturers of trunks and valises. FIRED THREE SHOTS AT THEM Bold Thieves Attempt to Get Away With a Val- uable Trunk. During the progress of the fire three thieves entered the hotel and stole a trunk containing considerable jewelry and wearing apparel. They succeeded in passing the police line and started up Powell street. On reaching O'Far- rell street the desperate thieves stopped as If exhuasted from thelr heavy load, Special Officer Judge happened along at this juncture, and suspecting that the men had stolen the trunk, awaited developments. In a few minutes they again picked up the trunk and hurriedly walked up O’Farrell street. Judge lost no time in notifying Po- liceman Harry Hook, who was stand- ing at Ellis and Powell streets, and to- gether they started after the thieves. As they ran up O'Farrell street they saw the men engaged in breaking open the trunk. Catching a glimpse of Hook the thieves ran away. Hook, who is one of the crack shots of the department, called upon them to stop, and as they paid no heed to his command, he drew his pistol and fired three shots at them. One of the men was seen to stagger and it is belleved that Hook succeeded in winging him. The officer being anxijus to return to the scene of the disastrous fire did not pursue the thieves, evidently satisfled to recover the stolen trunk. Subsequently it was conveyed to the Golden West Hotel, where it will be held until the owner calls for it. The owner is an agent for an Eastern jew- elry house, and it is said that the trunk contains a miscellaneous assort- ment of diamonds and jewelry. The thieves were evidently aware of this fact, and in the excitement due to the fire managed to get away with the trunk. A CHAMBERMAID BELIEVED LOST Fire Marshal Towe Hit by a Falling Cornice on Market Street. Sadie Hart, a chambermaid, has not been seen since she went to bed early in the evening, and is believed to be lost. Miss Herrold and Mrs. Sharpe who occupied rooms on the first floor were carried out unconscious and taken to the Lion Pharmacy. A young lad— and intimate friend of Baldwin's was also rescued in a faint- ing condition from a first floor room. Shortly after 5 o’clock a cornice fell and struck Fire Marshal Towe on the head, knocking him down in front of Engine 1 which was lumbering up the street. The extent of his injuries is not known. NO INSURANCE ON BUILDING At 5 o'clock tHe walls were tottering and the policemen were ineffectually struggling to keep the crowd back. “Lucky” Baldwin was racing around like a madman trying to find some one who would go into his room and bring out something—what it was he would not state—but a negro servant is au- thority for the statement that it was a set of gold mounted harness valued at $7000. There is no insurance on the building and the Hibernia Savings and Loan So- clety holds a lien of $900,000 on the ground. il