HYSTERICAL PEOPLE JUMPED TO DEATH

Chronicle (Levin), 11 June 1946, Page 8

HYSTERICAL PEOPLE JUMPED TO DEATH

FURTHER DETAILS OF TRAGIC HOTEL FIRE NEW YORK," June 10. T]iere are still 25 persons unaecounted for in the Caniield Hotel flre at Dubuqiie, lowa. Th.e ffi'O chief said he woqld never forgef the scre'ams of scores of pers&ns Stan^ing at the windows of the hotel' wlien tl)e brigade arrived. The firemen conc.entj-ated. .their eifqiits on .saving them before they hegan to iight the flames. Dozens of volunteers assisted the th-e-men to hold nets. One man jumped from the fourth floor. His liead struck the rim of one of the nets and he died a few minutes later. A woman misjudged her jurnp from the fourth floor, missed the net- altogether and died instantly as she struck the pavement. The cause of the flre was not immediately ascertainable. The flre apparently made considerable pirogress before dis'covery. 'Hand extinguishers were employed unavailingly while the flre brigade was on its way. The body of the hotel owner, Mr. Canfield was found on the floor below his living quarters, from which he had probably fallen. Mrs Canfleld was found and carried from the hotel apparently dead, but a hospital doetor discovered that she was alive, though eritically injured.Like Cliicago's La Salle tragedv, panic eonti'ibutecl to the death roll in Dubuque's greatest disaster, savs the Associated Press correspondent. Despite frantic entreaties by inspeetors, four hysterical men and flve women leaped to tbeir death. Most of those whose escape was cut off but resisted the impulse to jump were saved, with the exception of one man who broke a window on tlie fourth floor and threatened to jump. Several hundr.ed persons who gathered on the other side of the strefet screained at him to stay where he was. Firemen erected a ladde;1 to a window, tied a rope around tlie man's body and lowered him to the ground, where he was found to be dead. Firemen, civilians and polic-e made many heroie, spectaeular rescues. One man made a rope from the bed-clothing and slid towards the ground. Unfortunately he misjudged the distance and was obliged to drop 25 feet. He received critical injuries. One male guest of the hotel had escaped the Ohicago holocaust, but for the second time lost everything he had with him. In New York Ci.ty tlie Housing and Building Conlmissioner announced that a double flre protecfion inspection would be made of New York's 470 hotels. Additional inspeetors weft being assigned to suvvey and check escajies and elevator shafts.