GUMRY HOTEL - 1895

Boiler Explosion, Fire Killed 22

One of Denver's deadliest accidents

By Vinny Del Giudice

On Aug. 19, 1895, a boiler exploded at downtown Denver's Gumry Hotel while the boiler operator was at a saloon.

"Naught but the walls were left intact," the Aspen Weekly Times reported.

A Utah newspaper called it "a gaunt and sinister ruin."

The explosion killed 22 people including Peter Gumry, proprietor.

Newspapers published graphic details of the disaster.

The hotel was located on Lawrence Street between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets.

"The firemen, with light and torch, entered all parts of the hotel," according to a daily quoted by an insurance journal. "Out of the pile of brick, wood and iron below came feeble moans and piteous cries."

James Murphy, trapped in the ruins, pleaded with firemen to amputate his leg. Moments later a wall collapsed and buried Murphy. He died.

M.E. Letson, a dairyman, who waited 10 hours for rescuers to reach him, told a newspaper correspondent of his ordeal:

"You cannot have the slightest idea of my feelings as I lay there in the bottom of the basement with all the ruins on top and around me, hearing the excruciating cries of the dying and those in agony and being almost overcome by the shock, and also soaked with water and almost drowned and fearing that the next minute I would be buried alive."

A newspaper said: "Cries of a babe and the moans of men and women could be heard, but the flames and smoke increased, and finally the voices were all silenced."

Three Denver firemen - P. Gilchrist, J.E. Troy and Louis Maguire - were injured when a wall collapsed and "were almost suffocated to death by smoke and dust," according to a dispatch published in a New Jersey newspaper. [Daily True American of Trenton] The firemen were treated at the county hospital "where it was found they were not seriously injured."

Boiler operator Helmuth Loescher fled Denver and was returned to face investigators.

A coroner's jury determined it was impossible to assign blame, according to October 1895 edition of The Locomotive, a publication of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company.

Author Howard Potter Dunham, writing in a 1912 textbook [Google Books archive] entitled "The Business of Insurance," said the boiler contained adequate water.

However, the jury assailed Gumry and his business partner for allowing Loescher to work long hours; censured Loescher for negligence; and criticized the city boiler inspector for lax procedures and standards.

Excerpt of verdict [Chronicling America]:

"From the testimony submitted, which was conflicting, we are unable to fix the responsibility for the disaster upon any one person, but we believe the owners and managers, Peter Gumry and Robert C. Greiner, were blamable for requiring of the engineer sixteen hours' work out of twenty-four - a request far beyond the ability of any man to endure and perform good work; also for employing an engineer whose habits were dissipated and unreliable, and whose experience did not justify them in placing him in such a responsible position, all of which were well known to them.

"We find that the engineer, Helmuth Loescher, had been drinking on the night of the disaster, and further, he had not examined the safety valve to the boiler for two months, proving him unfit to occupy any position where security to life and property depends upon the faithful performance of duty."

Jury members: K. G. Cooper, F. B. Croke, F. E. Edbrooke, Charles W. Babcock, Frank M. Demange and R. W. Speer.

"Walls have been torn down, but three upper floors and an immense square skylight in the roof hangs suspended in midair directly over where the bodies are supposed to be … Firemen, laborers and their superintendents have worked incessantly, but little appears to have been accomplished … Chief of Police Goulding is in receipt of hundreds of letters and telegrams from all over the country making inquiry of the missing" - San Francisco Call [8/21]

"Every engine in the city was called to the scene … The firemen worked with great heroism. The heat was intense, and the smoke blinding. Electric light wires dangling in the alley, and walls tottering to a fall, increased the perils of the situation." - Oswego Daily Times [8/19]

List of Dead:

ROBERT C. GREINER; MRS. ROBERT C. GREINER; LIZZIE LAGER; LOUISE REINHUBER; EMMA MUHLERTHALER; PETER GUMRY; GENERAL CHARLES ADAMS; WILL RICHARDS; JAMES M. MURPHY; MYRON E. HAWLEY; E. W. EDWARDS, all of Denver; FRED HUBBOLD, Lisbon, Iowa; A. M. MUNROE, Colorado Springs; W. J. CORSON, Pueblo; E. F. McCLOSKEY, Cripple Creek; MRS. G. R. WOLFE; RUBY WOLFE, Lincoln, Neb.; BELA L. LORAH, Central City; FERDINAND FRENCH, Central City; GEORGE BURT, Colorado Springs; A. D. DODDS, Albany, N. Y.; ALBERT S. BLAKE, Pueblo

UNITED AIR LINES 859

Photo: Colorado Air National Guard

Photo: Wikipedia

The 1961 crash of United Air Lines DC-8 jetliner at old Stapleton Airport led to reforms in the Denver Fire Department.

The reforms included an expanded crash station, new trucks and increased firefighter staffing.

It was July 11, 1961 - dawn of the jet age - and Denver lacked adequate crash equipment and staffing to handle an emergency involving the big planes.

"The size and fuels of our airplanes has changed," Denver Fire Chief Allie Feldman. "Our firefighting equipment has not."

At about 11:35 a.m., Flight 859, inbound to Stapleton from Omaha, spun, scraped and skidded off Runway 26 Left after a seemingly normal touchdown and exploded in flames, claiming 18 lives. One of the passengers died at a hospital.

Airport firefighters - members of Company 22 - were praised for their valiant efforts.

But only a skeleton crew was on duty.

What's more, an FAA inspector had warned that Staleton's three crash rigs - a high-pressure pumper, low-pressure pumper and water tanker - were inadequate protection.

The fire department vehicles were "at least 12 years old," Feldman said. "It was the best we had at the time." Feldman was quoted in an Associated Press story printed in the Toledo Blade of Ohio.

The four-engine DC-8 "ground looped after the crash, swerved off the runway and smashed into a truck," the AP reported in a story printed in the Daily Tribune of Greeley, Colorado. Truck driver Henry Blom died instantly.

Flames engulfed the aircraft cabin.

"When I went out the door, my hat was on fire," said passenger Eva Hershel, 64, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was quoted in an AP story printed in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal.

Dr. Earl Guyer, clinical psychologist at the Veterans Hospital at Fort Lyons, was at the airport to meet his wife and three daughters. They died in the flames.

Ten minutes before touching down, the pilot reported a minor hydraulic problem.

The airport's firefighters were placed on "stand-by" at the east end of the runway - standard procedure for aircraft reporting potential mechanical problems.

They chased the skidding aircraft until it stopped. 

Fire Engineering magazine said:

"Immediately two high-pressure lines were stretched, followed by two 1½ inch foam lines.

"The foam turret on Low-Pressure No. 22 was not used since the aircraft was too far distant across the high-speed taxiway for it to be effective.

"The men were forced to fight the fire from the southeast side due to the direction of the wind, smoke and heat.

"A rear service door of the plane on the right side was open and an emergency chute in place had burned away.

"It has been estimated that 50 to 60 people escaped through this exit."

But Denver's other fire stations weren't immediately aware of the crash, and that led to a delay in the arrival of reinforcements.

"The fire trucks were standing by where they were supposed to," said Dick Martin, the airport manager. Martin was quoted in an AP story printed in the Lewiston Morning Tribune of Idaho.

"No other fire stations were notified because nobody, including the pilot, realized it was so serious" before the jet touched down, Martin said.

Questions were also raised about the airport's water supply.

United Airlines mechanic Earl Darling said he fought the flames with a fire extinguisher because "they didn't get any water on the burning plane for at least five minutes after it crashed." Darling was quoted in an AP story printed in the Lewiston Morning Tribune of Idaho.

However, Denver Fire Captain Edward Trunck - the acting district chief - said: "We started rolling our trucks when the airplane hit the runway. We started on that foam immediately."

Even if there had been more equipment and firefighters placed on standby, there was little that could have been done because speed and intensity of the flames.

"It didn't make any difference how many pieces of fire equipment we had there," Feldman said.

Investigators blamed the crash on "the failure of two engines on one side to generate reverse thrust, sending the aircraft out of control and rupturing a fuel tank," according to Wikipedia.

Following is the fire service response sequence as reported by Fire Engineering magazine:

Denver Fire Department

1129 - Company 22 airport firefighters placed on alert, positioned on taxiway near Runway 8 Right

• Acting Lieutenant Frank Glivar
• High pressure pumper, driven by Firefighter Joe Keelan
• Low pressure pumper, driven by Engineer Robert McDermid
• Water tanker, driven by Firefighter Roland Matson  

1136 - Pumpers 12, 18, 26 (dry chemical), Truck 9, Squad 4, East District Chief (Captain Edward Trunck, acting district chief); also Fire Chief Allie Feldman, Assistant Chief John Horan

1153 - 2-11 alarm. Pumpers 9, 10, Turret Wagon 3, Truck 10; also Deputy Chief Frazzini, Assistant Chief DeJong

1203 - Special call. Pumper 4

Mutual Aid

About 1136 - Lowry Air Force Base sent a pair of crash rigs, a rescue company, a pickup truck, an ambulance and two helicopters

About 1153 - Buckley Air Force Base sent a crash truck and rescue truck; Aurora sent three pumpers; Rocky Mountain Arsenal sent a pumper; the Army's Fitzsimmons General Hospital supplied medical personnel

ELITCH GARDENS - 1944

On July 16, 1944, fire roared through a "tunnel of love" boat ride at Denver's famed Elitch Gardens amusement park.

A locked gate delayed fire engines from reaching the blaze.

Smoke blackened the "Old Mill" boat ride, which featured colorful vessels and oil-painted canvas scenes. Six people died. Four of the dead were soldiers and their wives. Two worked at the park and rushed into the flames to save the others.

"Flames were still at their height when firemen crashed through the walls of the Old Mill with axes," the Associated Press reported.

The International News Service reported: "For nearly an hour firemen feared the entire million dollar park would be burned down".

William Kilbourne, a soldier from Louisville, Kentucky, was credited with saving lives by pushing boats out of the tunnel. "I heard a scream and looked back over my shoulder," Kilbourne said. "I saw a flash of flame in other boat or beside it."

The tragedy led to reforms in the municipal fire code.

Less than a month later, a fire claimed the lives of six children at the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey on Aug. 13, 1944.

FIREMEN CHASE FIRE - 1929

Typical Denver milk wagon

Pittsburgh Press - Dec. 22, 1929
 
Holiday Pursuit in Downtown Denver

By The United Press

DENVER - "Julius Caesar," a milk wagon horse with a sense of humor, and the Denver Fire Department gave Christmas shoppers a treat when they played "tag" in the main business section Saturday.

Julius, as a rule, goes about his business like any ordinary horse, but when an oil stove in the wagon exploded while the driver was delivering a bottle of milk, he broke away.

As Julius kicked up the snow in a burst of speed down a busy avenue, scattering bottles of milk, six fire trucks took up the pursuit.

The firemen "tagged" Julius after a chase of five blocks and extinguished the blaze.

 

COLFAX & BROADWAY

The Denver Fire Journal uncovered more about this most unusual fire in the Dec. 21, 1929 edition of the Rocky Mountain News.

The incident began at 20th and Broadway.

When firefighters arrived "they saw the fire careening down Broadway" and "flames and milk bottles were leaping from the doors and windows on  the wagon," the News said.

The horse and flaming wagon were corralled at Broadway and Colfax Avenue, a busy intersection near the state capitol.

"The horse suffered only from fright," the News said.

[The UP story appeared on page 2 of the Pittsburgh Press of Dec. 22, 1929]

WELL RESCUE - 1955

On April 16, 1955, rescuers saved toddler David Mark Counterman from an 18-foot water well in Aurora, Colorado.

Firefighters, city road workers and telephone company employees burrowed and bored to reach the 2-year-old who tumbled into the well hole, which was less than a foot in diameter. 

"He screamed all the time he was in the hole," said George Moorehead, fire chief of Aurora, quoted by the Associated Press. "But the minute we laid hands on him, he gave us a feeble smile and stopped. ... He knew he was OK." Recounting the four-hour incident, the Rocky Mountain News reported: "The first rescue squads on the scene immediately called for a power shovel" and "when it reached the 16-foot level, nine volunteers — in shifts — were lowered by ropes into the tunnel to begin their pick and shovel operations." Finally, Chief Moorehead and a volunteer firefighter named Frank Bruno went in and widened the hole a bit more to reach the toddler. “He stopped crying when he saw us,” Moorehead said. “The poor kid was bloodied and completely tuckered out." Oxygen hoses sustained David during the four-hour drama, while fire apparatus from Aurora, Denver, Fitzsimons Army Hospital and Lowry Air Force Base played floodlights on the successful rescue operation.

DENVER FIRE BUG - 1935

Warren Cramer under arrest

DENVER, Aug. 24. - A maniacal firebug terrorized Denver tonight, after he had kindled three fires in the $6,000,000 City Hall, where he endangered art treasures, and eluded a ring of officers to start a later fire in an office building. 

- The New York Times

The Life and Death of Warren Cramer

By Vinny Del Giudice
Denver Fire Journal

Warren Cramer was just plain bad.

As a teenager, he confessed to an arson spree in Denver. As an adult, he confessed to a murder in San Francisco -- and was executed in the gas chamber.

On Aug. 26, 1935, Cramer, 17, son of a prominent dentist and attorney from Oakland, California, confessed to setting 20 fires across Denver in five days, including blazes at a Catholic cathedral, two Catholic churches, City Hall and police headquarters.

"I got a thrill out of it," Detective Sergeant Walter Fox quoted the youth as saying, according to an Associated Press story printed in the Southeast Missourian newspaper. "It was fun, especially last night when I started a fire in police headquarters."

Cramer said he used a stolen bicycle to move from fire to fire.

Police caught him at a night club phone booth.

At first, police had suspected a "religious fanatic" or "Nazi sympathizer" with setting the church fires, according to a United Press story printed in the Telegraph-Herald of Dubuque, Iowa.

A headline in the Herald Journal of Spartanburg, South Carolina, read: "DENVER FEARFUL OF FIRE MANIAC."

The boy's father, Dr. Harry Cramer, said his son served 10 months at the Preston industrial school for petty theft and had repeatedly run away from home since he was 12.

Dr. Cramer also said the boy's mother, who died shortly after his birth, "was insane" and "this undoubtedly explains his actions," according to an Associated Press story in the Lawrence Journal-World of Kansas.

Cramer went onto an "eight-year career of thievery, arson and jail breaking" and was executed in California's gas chamber at San Quentin on May 14, 1943, for the slaying of Ernest Saxton, a San Francisco drug store clerk in 1942, according to a United Press story printed in the Bend Bulletin of Oregon.

At the end, San Quentin Warden Clinton Duffy described Cramer as a “brilliant” man who thought he had a “rotten streak in his system which he couldn’t control.”

His last words in the gas chamber were: "I can't smell anything yet ... It smells like rotten eggs," according to the book "Last Words of the Executed" by Robert K. Elder and Studs Terkel.


Uncontrollable Mental Quirk

In a Sept. 30, 1935 editorial, the Longmont Times-Call opined on Cramer's case:

Young Cramer was pronounced insane by physicians at the Colorado Psychopathic Hospital. He readily admits that he has an uncontrollable mental quirk in relation to arson and theft, while at the same time strictly contending that he was born for some great mission in the land; is qualified to formulate “rules of life” for other people and has many talents including wonderful ability as a singer.

Cramer is fairly well satisfied to go to the asylum as it will give him an opportunity to study languages. He says: “I want to become a great linguist, one who can trace every tongue back to its origin and speak or understand all the dialects known to man.” Then after he gets out he will, so he says, have developed a sense of power over persons who speak and understand only one language.

He does not seem to appreciate the fact that many people get along quite well with one language, if they behave themselves, and don't talk too much.

Arizona Republic

Details of 1942 Murder Case

Crim. No. 4454. In Bank. Jan. 29, 1943.]

THE PEOPLE, Respondent, v. WARREN CRAMER, Appellant.

COUNSEL

Warren Cramer, in pro. per., for Appellant.

Earl Warren, Attorney General, David H. Lener, Deputy Attorney General, Matthew Brady, District Attorney, and Leslie C. Gillen, Assistant District Attorney, for Respondent.

OPINION

THE COURT.

This is an automatic appeal from a judgment of conviction of first degree murder imposing the death penalty on the defendant. (See § 1239, Pen. Code.)

The District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco filed an information charging defendant with the murder of one Ernest Saxton on July 5, 1942, and with prior convictions of robbery and grand theft. [1] At the time set for arraignment, defendant expressed a desire to discharge his attorney and to enter a plea of guilty, but his counsel, over defendant's objection, suggested that a doubt existed as to defendant's sanity. Further proceedings under the information were suspended and, a jury having been waived, a hearing was had before the court to inquire into defendant's sanity. To assist it in the determination of this issue, the court appointed three eminent psychiatrists to examine defendant and to submit findings. An exhaustive hearing was had at which evidence was adduced tending to show insanity in certain of the defendant's ancestors and also prior adjudications of insanity against the defendant himself. There is also evidence of defendant's subsequent discharge as sane and, in addition, his own testimony that he had made a study of insanity and had successfully feigned its symptoms on prior occasions in order to avoid the penal punishment that otherwise would have resulted for earlier misdeeds. Defendant's testimony reveals a detailed knowledge of insanity and its symptoms.

One of the experts testified that it is possible to feign certain [21 Cal. 2d 533] symptoms of insanity and stated it as his opinion that upon former occasions the defendant had "accomplished his purpose of being declared insane" by feigning some of such symptoms. All three experts testified that defendant is sane and knows right from wrong. In addition, the chief psychiatrist at San Quentin penitentiary was called as a witness by defendant's counsel. He testified that on numerous occasions between 1937 and 1942, when the defendant was an inmate of the institution, he had opportunity to observe and examine him, and he was of the opinion that the defendant was not insane, but represented a self-willed, spoiled and undisciplined individual.

The four doctors agreed that the defendant was of superior intelligence, could rationalize as to what he had done, was capable of fully understanding and appreciating the significance and seriousness of his trial on the murder charge, and was wholly capable of rationally defending himself. With this evidence before it, as well as the defendant's testimony wherein he reveals himself to be highly intelligent, the trial court properly determined that the defendant was "presently sane" and "comprehends the nature and object of these proceedings and as a consequence of that is able to make a proper defense."

Upon arraignment for plea the defendant stated that he would represent himself, and requested his counsel to withdraw from the case. The court, however, in order to protect defendant's rights, requested counsel to remain and give any advice required in the presentation of the defense. Defendant thereupon entered a plea of guilty to the murder charge and admitted the prior offenses.

[2] The evidence addressed to the degree of the crime showed that the deceased, a drug store attendant, was shot by the defendant while the latter was attempting to rob his store. Prior to the shooting, defendant had purchased the gun from a taxicab driver and had stolen the automobile used in fleeing from the scene of the crime. He was apprehended later when the stolen automobile was recognized by policemen. Shortly after his arrest, defendant made and signed two statements, which the evidence discloses to have been voluntary, in which he set forth the details surrounding commission of the homicide and wherein he freely admitted his guilt. The evidence amply supports the judgment determining the murder to be [21 Cal. 2d 534] of the first degree and imposing the death penalty. (See §§ 189, 190, Pen. Code.)

The judgment is affirmed.

Documentation of execution