Oneonta,
NY Central Hotel Fire
January 16, 1910
HOTEL GUESTS FLEE FIRE BY LADDER ROUTE
Thirty-five Have Close Call In Central at
Oneonta
FLAMES CAUSE $100,000 LOSS
Employe (sic) Found Dead on Top Floor of
Structure – Blaze Starts Near Elevator Shaft and
Works Destruction Quickly.
BINGHAMTON, Jan. 16 – Fire this morning
destroyed the Central Hotel at Oneonta and did
about $100,000 damage and resulted in the death
of JACOB HEDINGER,
an employe of the hotel, who was suffocated on
the top floor.
The fire started at 3:40 o’clock in a cinder box
near the furnace in the hotel basement. The box
was near an elevator shaft, up which the flames
rapidly made their way, shutting off the
thirty-five guests in the house from the stairs.
All of these guests, in scant attire, escaped by
ladders or were carried out by firemen, losing
all of their clothing and other possessions.
The damage to the hotel was $60,000. Other
losses were Frank A.
Herrieffe, gent’s furnishings,
$15,000; C. H. Borst,
grocery, $2,000; Townsend Bros., hardware,
$3,000. The office of the National Express and
Ingraham’s
barber shop were also destroyed.
NEW YORK MAN TELLS OF EXPERIENCE IN FIRE
A. Cameron,
of New York, representin (sic) the Westinghouse
Air Brake Company, one of the hotel guests who
escaped from the fire by means of a fire rope,
came to Syracuse after the destruction of the
hotel and registered at the Vanderbilt Hotel.
The fact that Mr. Cameron did not register at
the Windsor Hotel, as did other guests after the
fire, led to a report that he had failed to
escape.
“It was pretty warm coming down that rope.” said
Mr. Cameron last night. “My overcoat was burned
some. I threw my traveling bag out of the window
and saved my belongings, but many of the guests
were lucky to get out, clad in their pajamas.
One guest, a fire insurance man, attired only in
his pajamas, had to jump from a window. Some of
the guests had their hands blistered in sliding
down the ropes. Others were taken down ladders
by firemen. It seemed to me that the entire
hotel was a mass of ruins in half an hour. The
fire cut off all possibility of getting out on
the elevator or by the stairs.”
The Post Standard, Syracuse, NY 17 Jan
1910
Transcribed by
Cheryl. Thank you,
Cheryl!
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