Destruction of Secretary Tracey's Residence

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 108, 6 March 1890, Page 4

Destruction of Secretary Tracey's Residence

Tha residence of the United States •Secretary of the Navy, Mr Tracey, in Wash'iuj-tou, was Uestroyed l>y tire oi. the moimug ul February 3rd, shortly -after 7 o'clock, befure auy. oi the family had risen, when Mrs Truce-., Miss Mary Tracey (her daughter), and a servant lout their lives. The Secretary, his daughter (Mrs E W. Wituier), aud her little daughter barely übcaped. Jurat as tue fireuieu arrived Mr<s- Wiliuer appeared at the aecoud storey window uit.ii her child, aud despite the protests from below jumped tv tha ground, fracturing her wrist, and sustaining -light mjuriwa. The child was also injured. Chief Eugiueer Hairiis rushed iuto the house and found the unconscious body of Secretary Tracey, which he bote to the wiudow, wheit* the fireuieu from the outside raised a ladder »ud took him down. The Chief Engineer, returning to the house, stumbled over a I >ody which proved to he that of Misa Maty Tracey, badly hurued, and t brought it out. Life was extiuct: Mrs Tracey jumped fruui the second storey window aud died of her injuries withiu an kur. The remainder of the household, with the exception . of cue servant, who was suffocated, escaped. The secretary, when burne from the hou»e. was at hist thought to be dead. He. was suiforiug from asphyxia, but the doctors r»otored him to consciousn-'Bs alter an hour's work. Wiit-ii the u» tvs <»f the death of his wife and the o.bt-f meu_l-ers of the family was cuuuiiuuicated to him he fell iuto a state of extreme mental anguish, which threaten* his life. The origin of the fjre, although reported as from defective flue*, r«uiain* a myati-ry. Tliw combustion was sui-prisiogly sudden and rapid