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Coroner's Jury Is Seeking Hotel Fire Evidence at Chicago (Kokomo Tribune, 18 Jan 1945, page 13)

Coroner's Jury Is Seeking Hotel Fire Evidence at Chicago
Chicago, Jan. 18 - (AP) - A corner's jury of six engineers Wednesday began gathering eyewitness testimony of events preceding and possible causes of Tuesday's fire at the General Clark hotel in which 14 persons died.
Fire Marshall Otto Dahl said the stone and frame building was between 60 and 70 years old, had a wooden stairway and "was always considered a poor risk by insurance companies." It had fire extinguishers that were recently checked and approved, he said.
Dahl said he believed the fire started on the first floor, rear, back of a cigar store, and spread upward through the stairway.
Dale Henry, a Bloomington, Ill., sailor who escaped with his wife from room 106, testified he heard an explosion, looked out the window, returned to bed and 10 minutes later heard the fire sirens.
Police and the coroner's office reported nine victims had been identified. They were: Mary Christine Walsh, 20, of suburban River Forest, the only woman, killed in a leap from a third floor window; James C. Callan, 62, Illinois Commerce Commission investigator; Kenneth L. Singleton, 52; Thaddeus Hendrick Van Horn, 44, former broker and salesman, and five identified yesterday: Edward Jesle, 36; Addison Wolfe, 49; Joseph Fellen, 65; William Reeslen, 75; Thomas McCormick, 45.
Four others, police said, were tentatively identified as Rudolph Boucher, 40, a waiter; Ernest Schaler, 73, a retired railway express employee; Max Tern, 63, a messenger and Joseph Miller, 35.

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