George David Ford
Hot Springs Fire Department - April 5, 1923
One fireman was killed and two other firemen were seriously hurt late tonight, when the walls of the Arlington hotel, which was destroyed by fire late today, crumbled and fell upon them as they were working in the ruins with a hose line. All guests, numbering more than 300, escaping without serious injury. The loss was estimated tonight as upward of a million dollars. The escape of many guests and empliyees was facilitated by the mountain slope on which the hotel was built; at the rear of the building egress is possible from each floor to the mountainside. Fifty persons unable to reach the rear and blocked from stairs by the smoke-filled halls, were rescued by firemen who reached the front windows on hook and ladder equipment.
The fire was discovered in the basement of the hotel at 3 o'clock, by an employee of the hotel, who noticed smoke coming from an electrical panel. Authorities were notified as a fire slowly began to spread. Strenuous efforts of the city fire department personnel were unavailing in checking its spread, though it was confined to the lower part of the building for an hour. Dense smoke in corridors and even outside the burning building interfered with the work of the firefighter.
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