The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-03-17
HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE


ing Scenes and sickening spectacies At
tending the Holocaust.
The burning, few days ago, of
charitable institution in the city of
Brooklyn maintained by the Catholics,
by which eighteen old and intirm men
lost their lives by suffocation and burn
ing, furnished the metropolis with
horor such as it has not had for many
day. The New York papers give full de-
tails of the heartrending disaster, from
which we condense the following ac-
count "The building. known as the
Home Tor the Aged, had two wings, one
for women and the other for men only.
The latter was burned. The occupants
of this wing numbered seventy three in
firm men of ages ranging from 60 to 80
years, many of them bedridden and
paralytic. The fire was discovered
about 3 a. m, in the lower part of the
eastern wing, and the only avenue of es-
cape was single stairway, which was
soon filled with flames. The old men
above, half stified with smoke and sud
denly awakened from sleep, didnot com
prehend fully their situation in time, or,
on account of their feebleress, were I'M
able to flee from it. There was no fire
alarm in the building, and it was full
half an hour after the flames had gained
Roadway before knowledge that there
was fire came to any person outside
the building. While the Sisters. were
engaged i'll the work of rescue, the
flames, gathering force from light wood
work in the interior, shot from the base
ment to the first floor, and assembled
from story to story. At 4:30 a. m. they
burst forth from the first story windows
and lit up the neighborhood with lurid
glare. This was the first intimation to
the outside world of the terrible peril to-
the inmates of the Home. The flames
were seen by the students and priests of
st. Johns College, who fastened to the
scene, and assisted in the work of saving
the inmates. When the engines arrived
on the scene of the conflagration the
firemen worked with courage and en-
ergy, but the entire eastern wing had
become wrapped in the flames, which
burst forth from all the windows and
rose above the roof. Some of the old
men, driven by the heat to forget their
pains, had crawled to the windows and
waved their arms for assistance, which
could not reach them, as the flames were
pourinsdrom windows, roof, and doors.
The scene that confronted the tiremen
was appalling, and when, above the roar
ing of the flames, a piercing shrek from
some bedridden Old man reached them,
! they became almost unnerved, but re-
covering themselves. they redoubled
their efforts and approached SO near the
burning building that their leather caps
were scorched and shriveled with heat.
The eastern wing became mass of
ruins. Many pathetic and impressive
! incidents occurred while the building
was burning, and its inmates were suffer
ing the terrors of death from fire.
Before the firemen had reached the
place, William Donohue, who lived near
at hand, placed ladder against the
burning building. 1t reached only to
the second story.
At window on the floor above stood
Michael Cummins, one of the inmates,
with his white hair streaming in
the wind. He was crying out, "Save
me For the love of God, save me
I'm burning up !" and he beat the air
with his hands.
" Get sheet and tie it to your win
dow, and lower yourself to the ladder,
shouted Donohue, "but for heaven s
sake don't jump"
The old man turned and snatched a
sheet from his bed, and knotted it to the
bedstead. Then he swung himself from
the window. Holding the sheet with the
strength OF despair, he lowered himself
to the end. He was then twelve feet
from the top of the ladder.
"Fall into my arms !" shouted Dono-
hue, and he stood ready to receive the
imperiled man.
The latter gave himself a swing, and
released his hold on the knotted and
twisted sheet, but as he fell, his right
foot only grazed the side Of the ladder.
He turned Il complete somersault as he
descended TO the ground, where he
struck upon the stone pavement mass
of bruised and battered flesh and broken
bones. His death was almost instan-
taneOuS.
jeremiah Sullivan, whose bed was in
the second story of the building, and
who was considered an incurable par
alytic, found his way to the window of
his room, and, obtaining strength from
! fear, mounted the sill and leaped to the
pavement below, breaking leg and sus-
tanning injuries which will probably
| prove fatal.
A few minutes before the roof fell,
firemen and police reached it by means
of the chapel and rescued a number of
aged persons who had fled to the roof
for safety. Exactly at 3 o'clock the roof
of the east wing fell, carrying, in its
descent, the charred floors. When the
smoke cleal ed away, IN one of the rooms
on the third story there was a horrible
spectacle. There lay the corpses of nine
unfortunate persons, some of whom
paralytics, and all of whom had been
unable to leave their beds. A few of
them were burned and the hair upon
their heads singed, but all doul ,tless
died from suffocation caused by smoke.
On the same floor an old man was found
dead, seated in chair. He also died of
suffocation, and was so infirm that he
was unable to leave his seat. Tn i,
! A. A