Death In The Flames

Spokanê, Wash., Jan. 25.- Until a thorough search can be made it will be imposslble to correctly estímate the number of those who died in the fire that destroyed the Great Easceri blook at Post street and Riverside avenue. Engines are still playing on the hot ruins and grief-stricken friends of the are making frenzied efforts to allay or verify their fears. There is the greatest variation in the estimates regarding the number of aead; some say that ten have been burned to death, while others are certain that at least flfty bodies are buried under the ruins-. It is certain that flve are dead. The property loss is $400,D00. The names of those known to be lost are: Alice Wilson; Rose Wilson, aged 18; Rose Sinith, an invalid, aged 20; Mrs. Davie. Other bodies are supposed to be in the building, which is too hot yet to enter. JLloyds Nai'rovv lCscape. W. D. Lloyd was sitting in his room on the fifth Hoor, reading, when the alarm was given. "Every one who was in bed at that time on that floor," he said, "perished." He had a narrow escape. Wrapping his overcoat around his head, he carne down the stairway. As he ran down the stairs he ran into two men. He saw flve persons on that floor who he is convinced perished. He heard persons falling all around him, suffocated by the dense smoke. All of the uper two floors and part of the third floor were used for lodging purposes and at least 150 people were asleep in the building when the firs started. While most of them escaped with only night clothes, it is thought a number perished. What makes the horror greater is that no one knows who is still buried in the ruins. As the people were removed from the burning structure or escaped themselves, they sought places of safety. Forms Lying: in the Hall. The last out of the upper floors report forms lying in the hall and women shrieking in the flames. The origin of the flre is supposed to have been in the engine room. Mrs. Stark Oliver, wife of Dr. Stark Oliver, who lived on the second floor. says she heard an explosión shortly before the flames appeared. The boiler of the engine may have exploded and caused the flre to start. There is another theory and that is the Chemicals in the basement stored there for the photographic supply of John W. Graham & Co. The Great Eastern block was built in 1S90 at a cost of $250,000 and was owned by Louis Levinski of San Francisco, who carried but $50,000 worth of insurance. On the ground floor of the structure was the establishment of the John W. Graham Paper eompany, stationery and supplies, and Skerrit & Donnelly, boots and shoes. Both are total losses Graham carried a stock worth $60,000, 70 per cent. covered by insurance. Fire Was Singularly Hot. The firm of Skerrit & Donnelly had a stock of $25,000, of which $20,000 was covered by insurance. In the offices above this were big losses on law libraries and fixtures, besides a probably still larger loss on furniture and household goods. The fire was singularly hot and the flre department was long in getting it under control. Even then the flames rose hundreds of feet in the air as long as two hours after its start. All the hose in the department was brought into use and the stores near by were called upon for their stock. Because of the network of wires surrounding the building, it was with the utmost difficulty that the ladders were elevated. While they were going up the peopl were at the windows, flames and smoke bursting out about them, shrieking-. Crowds of people on the streets below shrieked in sympathy with them. Death of Mrs üavles. Mrs. H. H. G. Davies of Nebraska City, Neb., feil or jumped from a flfth story window to the cement pavemeat. She died at the Sacred Heart hospital two hours later. A thrilling rescue was that of Robert Masson, his wife and their 2-year-old son from the fifth floor on the Post street side. From a fire escape on th fourth floor, seven feet to one side, of their window, flremen threw them a rope, which Masson made fast to hi3 bed and came down hand-over-hand. carrying his boy, Mrs. Masson follovving. As she hung suspended far above the ground the crowd watched with breathless interest. When she was grasped by a ftreman a shout of joy went up.