The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-09-13
Terrible Fire Disaster in New York.


Cincinnati Commercial telegram
NEW YORK, September Soon after
nine o'clock this morning flames burt from
the varnish room and windows of Joseph P.
.Hale's piano factory, on T~hirty-ffth Street.
The building, which covered seven city lots,
was full of the most combustible materials
light woods, shavings, varnishes and
similar substances-and the fire darted from
story to story with astonishing rapidity,
driving the workmen before it.
The number of men in the building is
variously estimated at from one hundred and
fifty to three hundred-the latter being the
whole number employed. A large number
of these were above the place where the
flames broke out, and the first warning they
received of the danger was from the fire and
smoke that burst upon them. They became
demoralized, and ran wildly about seeking
to escape. Some let themselves down the
elevator ropes, knocking one another off in
their excitement; others got away by the
fire escapes; many were SO much frightened
that they ran into the worst danger by
~springing for the widows, where they had
the mounting flames behind them and a fall
of many stories in front. Many jumped
from the third and fourth stories, and es-
capped, more or less hurt. One man who
leaped fell on the Thirty-sixth Street side,
and died soon after.
A strong northwest wind was blowing. 1t
swept through the long lows of narrow win,
dows, being sucked in by the heat, and drove
the flames across the broad floors almost
faster than the workmen could run out of
heir way. The dense smoke blinded and
stupefed the unfortunate men.
The firemen who first arrived on Thirty
| sixth Street say that they saw men in all the
windows above the third story striving to
escape, yet afraid to make the fearful leap
to the ground below. They also heard cries
for help coming out of the thick smoke
that enveloped the upper part Of the build
ing.
| Captain Bob Williams, of Truck Company
No. 4, which was one of the first to reach
the fire, heard men shouting for help in
| the third and fourth stories when he arrived.
His men tried to raise two ladders against
the building on the west side, but there was
such amaze of clothes-lines stretched across
the rear of the tenement houses that the
ladders could not be placed, and before the
lines could be cut the smoke and flames
burst out of the windows above so that no
one could approach them.
Some of the eye-witnesses of the early
stages of the fire say they saw through the
window men shriyeling in the heat, and
others stretching out their arms for help
that could not reach them. One fireman
declares he saw against the background OF
the fire two or three heads at every window
in the fourth and fifth stories. The men
who escaped from the different floors are
almost totally ignorant of what occurred
in other rooms besides their own. They
can hardly tell how they got down them
selves.
Peter Monk, who was at work in the
seventh story, says he tumhled dow the
stairs as soon as the smoke began to pour uT
from below, being almost blinded. An
other man who was in the seventh story
says the fire spread upward like lightning
Before the firemen reached the building
the heat was so intense that it could hardly
be approached, and for this reason not
ladder was raised against the burning wall
to rescue the inmates, who then were seer
to drop from the windows to the ground
and the frcmen were compelled to see then
perish there. Very soon, indeed, thei
scorched bodies were crushed under tn,
falling walls.
Seventeen engines were Immediately sum
moned, but the building was quickly con
sumed. The fire spread until the entir,
block and part of an adjoining one wa
burned. Lack of water prevented its beinI
e~xtinguished. The other burned building
were Frahm's silk factory, loss 100000
and tenementsy stables and groceries.
The total loss is estimated at 100000.
Only one or TWO DOuleS nav mus Id
(%midnight) been recovered, as the ruins ar
too hot to admit of search. The number o
dead can only be guessed at.
The fremen, who were almost the frs
on the ground, place the number at between
thirty and sixty. The number of men VIII,
were known to be in the building and VIII,
are reported missing is about fifty. Mos
of them were German piano makers. Their
are innumerable stories of escape and dealt
and most shocking incidents. A chain fir
escape was thrown out of the seventh
story window. 1t soon became red-hot.
| workman attempted to climb down it, bu
his hands were burned and he fell. On
man escaped from the seventh story b,
lowering himself from one window t
another, a marvellous feat.
In one of the burned tenements a ma
! died hall an hour before the fire. Whel
the alarm was given and the flames entere
the house, his wife fell dead of shock. TIL
fremen carried out the two corpses.