DISASTER FOLLOWS AN INJUNCTION.
Aroused by the fire that wrecked the old building at No. 255 Wabash avenue, Chicago, on May 1 and caused injuries to forty-eight women, girls and men, some of which may prove fatal, the city building department prepared to make a thorough inspection of all the structures in the district. The Story & Clark building, which was burned, housed the Lotus Lunch Club, a noonday eating place for downtown employees. There was only one narrow stairway in the building, and the elevator-shaft was not inclosed with fireproof material, as required by law, but by a wire netting, and the stairway wound round it. Because of an injunction granted on January 8, 1904, and still pending, the city has not been able to compel the enforcement of its building law's on the requirement that the shafts shall be inclosed in fireproofing.
Aroused by the fire that wrecked the old building at No. 255 Wabash avenue, Chicago, on May 1 and caused injuries to forty-eight women, girls and men, some of which may prove fatal, the city building department prepared to make a thorough inspection of all the structures in the district. The Story & Clark building, which was burned, housed the Lotus Lunch Club, a noonday eating place for downtown employees. There was only one narrow stairway in the building, and the elevator-shaft was not inclosed with fireproof material, as required by law, but by a wire netting, and the stairway wound round it. Because of an injunction granted on January 8, 1904, and still pending, the city has not been able to compel the enforcement of its building law's on the requirement that the shafts shall be inclosed in fireproofing.
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