Burns Out Buffalo Police
Incendiary Destroys Headquarters—Czolgosz’s Original
Confession Burned.
BUFFALO, N. Y., Nov. 1.—Police Headquarters,
at Franklin Street, the Terrace, and West Seneca Street, burned
this afternoon. Police records, the Rogues’ Gallery, and many important
documents, including the original copy of Leon Czolgosz’s confession
of the assassination of President McKinley, were destroyed. The
fire was of incendiary origin.
Two companies of firemen were caught
in the collapse of the roof and cupola and eight men were seriously
injured. None will die. The injured men are Capt. Michael Haggerty
and Firemen Charles Basil, George J. Schuenblim, John C. Malloy,
Frank Maloney, Charles Pries, Dennis Ryan, and Albert Witte.
At 2:30 this afternoon Police Commissioner
Zeller picked up a blazing newspaper in a hallway. Half an hour
later a police messenger found a blazing window brush in the storeroom.
He had just reached the Commissioner’s room with the smoldering
brush when there was a cry of fire from the street, and flames were
seen shooting from the cupola over the main entrance and from the
windows on the fourth floor. The twenty prisoners were handcuffed
together and marched to the jail.
The firemen apparently had the flames
under control and were working on the third floor when the cupola
toppled over and crashed through the roof and top floor. Two companies
of men were caught in the crash. They were released after twenty
minutes of hard work and eight of them taken to the hospital. The
building was practically destroyed. The loss is estimated at $100,000.
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