FIRE SWEEPS U.S. HOTEL

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24897, 10 June 1946, Page 5

FIRE SWEEPS U.S. HOTEL

15 Known Dead DRAMATIC RESCUE SCENES (N Z Press Association —Copy right» (Rec. 12.30 a m.) NEW YORK. June 9. At least 15 are known to be daaa, and it is feared that others have perished in an early morning fire which destroyed the Canfield Hotel at Dubuque, lowa. The guests were at the windows, screaming for aid when , the firemen arrived. Twenty-seven | were saved by leaping into nets, but three or tour missed the nets and were killed. Thirty were rescued by ladders. At least 19 are in hospital. When the outbreak was brought under control, firemen searched the charred wreckage for bodies, but It might be days oefore all the bodies are recovered. The hotel cleric said that there were 129 guests on the ■ register. Among those believed dead in the wreckage are William Canfield, aged -0. owner of the hotel, bis wife, and their nurseFiremen reported seeing Mrs Canfield throw a dog from the window of their apartment on the top floor of the hotel. The outbreak was discovered near • cocktail lounae entrance. Firemen said that the blaze spread so rapidly that it was out of control by the time fire-fighting equipment arrived. The hotel consisted of two sections, one four-storeyed and 50 years old, and the other a six-storeyed annex 21 years old. Only the brick walls are left of the old section, in which most of the deaths occurred. Damage to the annex was less extensive, but the firemen said there were some dead in that section. One guest trapped by the flames dropped to a ledge below his window, from which he was rescued by firemen. Another made a rope from bedsheets and climbed from the fourth floor to a fireman’s ladder, which reached only to the third floor.