The Saratoga Sun

DENVER PEOPLE DEAD
VICTIMS OF THE HOTEL FIRE.

Three Buyers for Denver Firms Lose their Lives at New York.--Total of Eighteen Deaths.

New York, Feb. 24.--Seventeen and probably eighteen persons lost their lives in the burning of the Park Avenue hotel here Saturday.

Of the number three were from Denver and one from Colorado Springs.

The list of the burned, and otherwise injured people, numbers eighteen, including two Denver women.

There were about 500 guests in the hotel when the fire broke out. It had no fire escapes or stand pipes, being considered fire proof, and the comparatively small loss of life seems marvelous.

The following list of persons who lost their lives in the Park Avenue fire, or who died from injuries received in it, has been compiled:

Norman Acton died in Bellevue, body at morgue, lived at Colorado Springs.

Colonel Charles L. Burdette, Hartford, Conn., commander of the First regiment Connecticut volunteers; killed by fall in fire.

William J. Bernhardt of Chicago, killed in hotel.

Mrs. J. Bernhardt of Chicago, died in Bellevue.

Lee G. Conrad, draughtsman, of this city.

Fred S. Hovey of Lyons, N. Y.

Thomas P. Horne, of Denver, buyer for the Joslin Dry Goods Company.

John Iverson, Denver, buyer for the Joslin Dry Goods Company.

Minnie E. Liggett, Denver, buyer for Daniels & Fisher Stores company.

Mrs. J. McManus.

Captain Charles Underwood O'Connell.

Ex-Congressman Gaston A. Robbins of Selma, Alabama.

Esther Schlesinger, aged 35, Chicago.

Jacob Spahn, aged 50, Rochester, New York.

John G. Walker, aged 35, Columbia, Tenn.

Colonel Alexander M. Piper, U. S. A., retired, aged 70 years.

Mrs. Salome Foster, known as the "Tombs Angel."

Body of woman, unidentified, may be that of wife of Rev. William S. Boardman, who is a patient at Bellevue.

This list of eighteen may be cut to seventeen, as one body has been identified as that of William J. Bernhardt and as that of Lee G. Conrad.

It was the worst hotel fire since the Windsor was destroyed. The fire was first seen at about 1:30 in the morning in the armory, and in remarkable short time that building was aflame from end to end. The firemen made their way as best they could through streets deep with slush and did all possible to confine the fire to the armory, but after they had been at work an hour the discovery was made that the hotel was on fire. The hotel was crowded with guests who had come to attend the festivities in honor of Prince Henry. More than 500 persons were in the house.

It was not until almost 3 o'clock that the flames were discovered in the Park Avenue hotel, directly across from the armory. Manager Reed of the hotel had been on the roof watching the fire in the armory with guests from the hotel. He had descended to the first floor and was standing talking to a guest when a burst of flame came up through the elevator shaft. Immediately he ordered his men to go through the hotel to give the alarm.

The lights almost immediately went out and the hotel corridors were in darkness. The flames leaped up through the elevator shaft and seemed to gather around the fifth and sixth floors, filling the halls with dense smoke and making exit by means of the stairways almost impossible.

The Park Avenue hotel was built by A. T. Stewart, who spent $3,000,000 on its construction and furnishings. The building occupies the entire front of the block on Park avenue from Thirty-second to Thirty-third streets, with a depth of half a block. It is seven stories in height and encloses on four sides a court containing 14,000 square feet of space.

The fire was confined principally to the fifth and sixth floors, near the elevator air shaft. About the time the hotel was found to be on fire the lights went out and the corridors were filled with smoke. The guests, unable to find the way through the darkened hallway, jumped from windows or ran directly into the flame-swept portions of the buildings. It is this fact that accounts for the large loss of life, although the hotel was not destroyed.

Four Colorado people are among the dead in the Park Avenue hotel of New York, destroyed by fire yesterday morning, and several other residents of this state were injured or had narrow escapes. In the destruction of the house a well-known former hotel man of Colorado, E. Barnett, a second time has seen his business and property destroyed. Mr. Barnett was proprietor of the Antlers hotel of Colorado Springs when it was burned three years ago.

Miss Minnie E. Liggett, the latest identified Denver lady victim of the Park hotel fire in New York, was head dressmaker for the Daniels & Fisher Stores Company. She lived with her widowed mother, Mrs. Jane Liggett, at No. 1245 Ogden street. Mrs. Liggett is very old and has been ill with heart disease for some time. The news of her daughter's death was a great shock to her and her doctor says that it may result in her death. Mrs. Liggett was very weak last night and refused to be comforted.

Miss Liggett was to have started for Denver the day following the fire. It is stated that after being awakened she went from her room on the sixth floor to the second floor to awaken a friend who had a room there. Then she returned to her room and failed to get out of the building in time to save her own life.

John H. Iverson had charge of the ribbon, jewelry and notions department of the Joslin Dry Goods Company, but was a buyer for other departments as well. He was forty-six years old and unmarried. He came to Denver twelve years ago from Fort Howard, Wisconsin.

Thomas P. Horne was manager of the hosiery and glove department of Joslins. He and Mr. Iverson were close friends, and usually managed to take their buying trips together, and profit each by the other's advice. Mr. Horne was unmarried and boarded at No. 1476 Pennsylvania avenue. He was a native of Kentucky.