Daily Kennebec journal., 1877-09-04
!
TERRIBLE DISASTER.
Burning Of a Piano Factory.
II rs FEARED ONE HUNDRED
LIVES ARE LOST.
The Flames Spread with Fear
ful Rapidity.
Loss $3OO,OOO.
Loss 100000.

| New YORK. September 3. The Evening T,le
grams report of the fire at Hale's piano msnufac.
| tory says all hands were at work when the fire
| started, and large numbers must be more or less
| injured. Two bodies have been recovered. 1t i.
feared hundred lives are lost
The wives and families of workmen are sobbing
and waiing about he ruins. There is now no
hope that single Vestige of the block bounded
| by 59th and 36t1 streets, and 10Th and llth ave-
nues will be left 1t was painfully evident as the
hre spread, that there was little chance of those
within the factory getting out alive.
At noon, nifty thousand persons were gathered
about the fire. sparks fired the gospel tent on
| OATH street. and 1t was destroyed.
| The Post says the factory was an eight story
| building, and the flames spread with extraordi-
| naay rapIdity. The fremen could probably have
| prevented the flames spreading but were unable
owing to the inadequate water supply. Tenants
OF houses were unable to obtain water except
| from cutters.
Inc lowest estimate of the loss is a million dol
| lars. Rumors of loss of life is conflicting. 1t is
probable that some workmen in the piano factory
were unable to escape. woman died ring the
fire. but whether in attempting to escape from the
| building or from excitement is not stated.
Twenty five or Thirty girls employed in the up.
| per stories of the factory perished. Ambulances
nave removed eighteen or twenty wounded, who
| jumped from the burning factory. The fire is
fresh confisgraton.
The workmen fIom the top floor said the alarm
was first given by man who looked out of a
window and saw smoke issuing from the ndows
below. There were twenty -four workmen on that
Il JOr. The fire and smoke drove them back from
the stalrways, but there were fire ladders and
chain escapes at the ends of the building.
Louis smith house was burned while he was
at work. lie is unable to find his four years old
daughter, and fears she is burned to death.
The occupants of houses in 3Gth street. assert
they could see the factory workmen making Ell
forts to escape from roots and upper stories, and
hear shrieks for assistance.
The Commercial reports $40 families rendered
penniless.
"A Herald Bulletin says hundred lives were
lost in this mornings fire.
The fire originated in the sounding board of the
drying room on the third toor where stove was
used for heating. the steam apparatus not having
yet been put in. A spark from the stove is sup
posed to have ignIted some of the dry materieal
close at hand. Almost Instantly that part of the
building was in flames.
The factory was eight stories in height. AL
though 1t is said that the means of escape were
sufficient yet number of lives have been lost
There were l65 men in the building at the time
aud the flames spread so rapily that the employees
who were in the drying room were cut off from
the staiIcases' Ihey ran to the roof and to the
windows and some dropped to the ground.
The were was scarcity of water is the neigh
borhood, conse quently there was some delay be-
fore the engines played the fire. Several
alarms were sent, in the haste, and finally the wa
ter was obtained from Sth avenue and the river
Meanwhile the fire extended and the piano fac
tory was mass of flames, aud the walls began
falling. Some OF the firemen say that at thls
time on Both street at least fourteen men were
clngipg to the rear windows of the upper tories
and were buried in the falling debris. They could
not be reached by ladders, and the flames drove
back the firemen.
One man d. opped before the walls fell, and was
picked up dead. Others were only injured and
| taken to the Bellevue hospital. The inmates OF
the tenements sos, 507 and 500 west Both street,
generally escaped. One woman died from fright,
and little glrl named Annie Smith was suifocat-
ed. The wife and three other children of Louis
Smlth, the father, are missing.
The flames spread to the adjacent buildings in
the block with Hale's establishment. Graham S
silk factory, Watkins charcoal factory and Con-
nels barrel factory, and number of tenemen-
houses and saloons were destroyed. Buildings of
this block fronting on Tenth avenue we're gutted,
and the rear portions comprising a saloon and
small store were burned, also the tenements in
the middle OF that block. No lives were lost
these
The whole loss of property will reach $500, 600
By III O'Clock the fire was entirely under control
and streams of water were turned on the Both
street side. 1t is feared that humber of bodies
will be found at this spot The fire commlss ION
ers are of the opinion that none except employees
were burned, and say the reports of loss of life
have been exaggerated.