Battle Creek, MI Orphanage Fire, Feb 1909

LITTLE ONES PERISH.

AN ORPHANAGE AT BATTLE CREEK, MICH., DESTROYED BY FIRE AND THREE OF THE YOUNG INMATES LOST THEIR LIVES.

SEVEN LITTLE GIRLS JUMPED FROM THIRD STORY WINDOWS -- JAMES ARMSTRONG, BUT 12 YEARS OLD, GOES INTO THE HERO CLASS ON HIS MERITS.

Battle Creek, Mich., Feb. 5 -- The Haskell Memorial Home, the property on the Seventh Day Adventists, an orphanage, located near the western boundary of this city, was destroyed by fire today.
Three of the thirty-seven little inmates of the orphanage are missing, and it is believed they perished in the flames. The missing are:
LENA McFERNEY, aged fourteen.
CECIL QUOTENT, aged thirteen.
GEORGE GOODENOW, aged eight years.
In the panic following the alarm of fire, seven little girls leaped from windows on the third floor of the institution. It is not thought that any of these seven are fatally injured although RUTH ROFF, one of those who in her fright, made the jump, is believed to have seriously injured her spine.
JAMES ARMSTRONG, twelve years of age, made a hero of himself by standing on a shed under one of the windows of the burning building, directing the panic-stricken children how to make their jump easy as possible and seeking to calm their fears. He actually caught two of the smaller girls in his arms.
MRS. OWEN, whose husband is in charge of the institution, fought her way down a stairway which was a mass of flames, carrying a six weeks old baby, with two little girls clinging to her skirts. The flames fanned by a strong wind, spread rapidly and the building was soon doomed. The loss will exceed $50,000.

Olean Times New York 1909-02-05
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!