Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Burning of the Newhall House Published by Bleyer Bros. Cramer, Aikens & Cramer, Printers - 1883 [30] BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE THREE IMPORTANT STATEMENTS The following statements are printed in order to give an idea of the origin of the fire and the rapidity of its progress: STATEMENT OF WILLIAM McKENZIE, ELEVATOR CONDUCTOR. At 2 o'clock in the morning I took a Mr. Brown, connected with the "Ranch 10" Company, from the first to the third floor in the elevator. After taking Brown I took care of a grate fire in the office, and then made a tour of inspection through the dining-room and kitchen. From the kitchen I went through the cellar and engine-room, and returned to the office floor. This occupied my time a trifle over half an hour. I next went down the main stairway and around past the saloon to the ladies' entrance, to see that no tramps had found lodging there. About 3 o'clock I was on the office floor waiting for passengers by the trains which usually arrive at that hour. The train was late and I made another tour of the house, taking in the first and --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [31] BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE second floors, the bank building, and the kitclien and cellar. On my return at half-past three or twenty-flve minutes to four I took up Mr. Elliott, who came on the delayed train. I took him to the fifth floor, where he roomed. There I let the elevator stand and made a tour of the halls of that floor. While coming around to the elevator again I met a gentleman apparently searching for a room-number. Went toward him and recognized him as a man who slept on the floor above. Invited him into the elevator and carried him up. Again let the elevator stand and made a tour of the halls there. Took a look at the clock on this top floor, and found it to indicate ten minutes of four. This clock could not be depended upon for correctness, however. My time to call the help is 4 o'clock. I had the kitchen fireman to call on this floor, and as I pas- sed the elevator to do so I saw smoke issuing from the shaft at the bottom of the car. I immediately sprang into the elevator and descended to see where it was coming from. By the time I reached the floor above the office the smoke had become so dense that I stopped the elevator and ran down the next flight of stairs to the oflice. Tom Delaney, the night clerk, was standing in front of the counter. I said to him: "Tom, there is smoke coming up through here, and I am going to see where it comes from." I then ran down the main stairway, and around to the main elevator, followed by Tom. I found the passage leading to the Michigan street entrance so filled with smoke that I could not enter. I said to Tom, "Turn the water on," as I closed the door, and he replied: "I'll telephone for the firemen." Then I rushed into the pitcher closet, and shouted down to Linehan to come up, as there was fire in the elevator. After doing this I returned to the hallway below and found the smoke as bad as ever. Linehan here rushed past me into the hallway leading to the Michigan street entrance. I spoke: " There's no use staying here. We had better call the house;" with which I rushed up to the third floor, shouting "Fire!" and I kicked in the door of Mr. and Mrs. Cramer's sleeping-room; also the door of room 24, occupied by some of the Tom Thumb people. The fire was now beginning to burst out of the elevator door on this floor. The smoke and fire appeared suddenly and enveloped me so that I gave up the idea of running to the floor above, which I had in mind. In fact, the smoke became so dense that it fair- ly bewildered me. I dropped upon the floor, and hastily crawled to the passage leading across the alley to the bank building. Here even the heat which preceded me had warmed the knob of the door. The first gust of smoke and hot air from the elevator almost stifled me. Through the bank building I proceeded to the street, and assisted people who sprang from the windows, and also helped to raise a ladder to Tom Thumb's room, so that he and his wife could be got out. STATEMENT OF ENGINEER WILLIAM LINEHAN. I came on duty at half-past 3 o'clock in the morning, and at ten minutes before 4 turned steam on for the office. I then sat down for about ten minutes, after which I tried the steam-gauge and shut the furnace dampers. At 4 o'clock - perhaps a few minutes sooner or later - I heard the warning --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [32] BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE call of the night watchman, directed to me from the pitcher-closet on the office floor. The watchman informed me hastily of the discovery of a fire in the hotel. I ran to the office floor via the rear or servants' stairway and shouted: "Tom, where is all the fire coming from?" The reply was: "I don't know, but the house is full of smoke." (Tom was the night clerk). I then ran down to the main floor and reeled off a line of canvas hose, which I dragged up-stairs. As I reached the landing flames were working through the office floor near the elevator entrance. This caused me to run downstairs again for the purpose of directing the firemen, who had arrived and were running two lines of hose into the elevator entrance. After having done this I once more proceeded to the office floor, and encountered Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Cramer and the housekeeper, Mrs. Lusk, near the landing of the old ladies' entrance stairway. I next retraced my steps to the basement via the back stairway, and got a lamp, intending to run up-stairs to the upper floors and arouse the help. Before doing so, however, I ran forward through the basement to the bottom of the elevator shaft, a distance of eighty feet, and opened the door leading into the bottom of the shaft. I only pulled the door ajar sufficiently to thrust my head into the shaft. My attention was immediately drawn to flames rushing into and up the shaft through the east wall. This wall was merely a board partition separating the wood and general store-room of the Goetz barber-shop from the shaft. The flames did not fill the shaft, but merely rushed upward along this eastern board-partition wall. I had to withdraw my head from the shaft quickly, as the current of air rushing upward was so strong that it lifted a silk cap which I wore off my head, and I barely saved it from being swept upward into the vortex of fire. The point where the flames seemed to burst into the shaft was between three and four feet, or a little more than an ordinary barrel high. When I withdrew my head I closed the door and ran back with all the speed I possessed, to and up the back stairway, as far as the tank-room, between the fourth and fifth floors. There I shouted to those above that they should come to me and I would save them. No one responded. I then descended to the third floor, where I met a German girl (the vegetable cook in the kitchen), whose name I do not now remember, and asked her if she knew where my sister Kate was. The girl replied that Kate was all right, as she (the girl) had been called by her. I heard some one moaning in the hall, and proceed- ing through the smoke in the direction of the sound, I found a young woman, who afterwards proved to be Julia Burns, lying upon the floor senseless and foaming at the mouth. She was scantily dressed. I took her in my arms and carried her to the landing on the office level, and put her down upon the floor. Then I went back up-stairs, found a man lying senseless, and bore him to the same landing, where there was no smoke. This man I covered with a buffalo robe. I went back a third time and brought down a dining room girl named Christina some- thing, who roomed on the third floor. The fourth trip I brought down Lizzie Anglin, who afterwards died at the Axtel House, from effects of burns, although to me, at the time, --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [33] BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE she did not appear to be injured. The fifth trip put the second porter in my hands, and I brought him down to the same landing with the others. A sixth trip resulted in the rescue of a man whom I encountered with a blanket wrapped around him. By this time the smoke had become so dense that I could not go up any more, and I turned my attention to those I had brought down, taking them out into the alley in the rear of the hotel. Scarcely had the last one been taken out into the open air, when a horrible yell greeted my ears. The voice was apparently that of a man, and the sound came from the court. I rushed in there to see who it might be, and save him, if possible. But I could discover no one. While search- ing the court with my eyes from the doorway, a spark of fire from aloft fell upon my neck, and gave me a painful burn. Other cinders fell upon my cap, and burned that. The man who shrieked in such an unearthly manner may have been at one of the windows looking into the court. He may also have been upon the brick pavement below, and unseen by me, but there can be no mistaking where the sound of his voice came from. It fairly makes me shudder when I think of it now. After this last effort at life-saving I beat a hasty retreat into the open air, and not any too soon, as by this time the entire upper portion of the building was a mass of flames. STATEMENT OF THOMAS DELANEY, THE NIGHT CLERK. On the morning of the fire I was in the office. Going back to 3 o'clock in the morning, or about that time, two officers came in. One, I think, was O'Brien. They stayed about five minutes. The next person who came in was T. B. Elliott; that Avas after the Chamber clock had struck 3:30. He said "Good morning, Tom," and I told the night watch to take Mr. Elliott to his room. The next who came in was Conductor Howie, about five minutes after. He left a small satchel on the settee at the top of the stairway. I spoke to him and got a drink, then walked up the south stairway. That was pretty near 4 o'clock. The next thing I heard was a step on the stairs, I looked over the front stairs and saw smoke rising from below% near the stairs. It was McKenzie I had heard, and he asked me where the smoke came from. I said down stairs, and we both rushed down, he a little ahead. We pas- sed the wine-room. Who got to the Michigan street door first, I don't know, but when it was opened the smoke rushed through the hall so densely that I was forced back. I ran to give an alarm, which I did by the telephone. That, I knew, was the quickest way to send in the alarm. That was, as near as I can say, about 4 o'clock. It was five minutes to four when I first discovered the smoke. I telephoned: "Send Fire Department to Newhall as quick as you can!" They responded they would be there in a minute. I then set about seeing how the firemen could best reach the blaze. I ran to the Broadway sidewalk and already No. 1 hose cart was coming down. I looked into the house at this juncture and saw flames had burst from the ele-vator. I yelled, "Eight this way, gentlemen!" Two firemen rushed in with Babcocks, but they saw it was too late for them and hose was run in. I ran into the house and the first ones I met were Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Cramer, in their night-clothes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [34] BURNING OF THE NEWHALL HOUSE Two men came in then—officers or firemen—and requested me to let them into the balcony. I did so, but the balcony door was not locked. By this time one man had jumped on to the balcony. Mr. Antisdel called me back to the office and asked for the key to the safe. I took it from the cashdrawer and gave it to young John Antisdel, who was nude, and I gave him one of Mr. Lee's coats. I took the valuables out of the safe, jumped out of the office and handed Mr. Freeman's buffalo overcoat to Mrs. Cramer, who asked me to go to their room and get them some clothes. I tried to do so, but had to come back and told her I could not get to the room, and she said, "Never mind." Parlor C struck me just then, where I knew was Tom Thumb, Running there I found a policeman, and I awoke everybody in that neighborhood. I then ran up the north stairs and met Mr. Starr, with Mr. Ludington in a chair. Then I ran down to the ladies' entrance and got a couple of the policemen, who helped Mr. Ludington down. I then thought of Mr. Paul, who was also on the Ludington floor. I met him hobbling along, nude, and I got officers to help him down, which they did. I went up again, the third and last time. The smoke was so strong and the gas out that I could see nothing. I struck a match to light the gas, and it went out. I tried to light a torch, but could not. The smoke was then so suffocating that I had to lie down. I went up all those times to get people out, and had to crawl back to the office on my hands and knees the last time. When I left the office the floor was falling in around the elevator. I gave young Antisdel two little boxes, but he did not take them out and I did. About ten minutes elapsed between the time I found the fire and was forced from the house. After I left the office I went out on Broadway. By that time four stories were all on fire. I stood around until I got cold, and then I went home. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================