Chicago, IL Apartment Fire, May 1901

SEVEN BURNED TO DEATH IN CHICAGO.

FIRE DESTROYS A THREE-STORY APARTMENT HOUSE, CREMATING NUMBER OF OCCUPANTS.

OTHERS ARE BADLY INJURED.

FEUD BETWEEN TWO FAMILIES SAID TO HAVE BEEN INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISASTER.

Chicago, May 7. -- Seven persons were burned to death, three fatally injured and several others slightly burned and otherwise injured in a fire that destroyed a three-story apartment building at 9316
Marquette Avenue, South Chicago, early yesterday.
The dead:
MRS. JOSEPHINE COOLEY.
MABEL COOLEY, 6-year-old daughter of MRS. COOLEY.
PETER ZOOK, owner of the building.
MRS. PETER ZOOK.
NICHOLAS ZOOK.
Seriously injured:
WM. COOLEY, husband of MRS. JOSEPHINE COOLEY, badly burned; will die.
LOUISA CHRISTENSON, 2-year-old daughter of MRS. CHRISTENSON, severely burned; will die.
HARRY MURPHY, slightly burned and both legs broken by jumping from the third story window; will recover.
JOHN ZOOK, badly burned and bruised about the body; will recover.
MRS. JULIA ERWIN, burned and bruised.
While the occupants of the burning building were struggling with the smoke and flames in the hope of forcing their way to safety, the firemen, who were responding to the alarm, were vainly waiting for a freight train which blocked the way of the fire engines to move away from the crossing and give an open road to the fire. Marshal Driscoll, in charge
of the firemen, called to the conductor and brakemen to remove the train, but they refused to comply with his request. The police were sent for and the crew was arrested. Then, under orders of the fire marshal, the train was backed from the crossing, but by the time the firemen reached the burning building the structure had been destroyed. Scattered among the embers were found the charred remains of the victims. The bodies were burned beyond recognition, and were identified in various ways.
The train crew, who live at Elkhart, Ind., are being held without bail, awaiting the verdict of the coroner's inquest.

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