The Portland daily press., 1881-01-05
ANOTHER HORROR.
Burning of Tenement House in
New York.
NINE OF THE INMATES BURNED TO
DEATH.

NEW YORK, Jan. AT $40 fire broke out
in tenement house in rear of James Doyle's
liquor store, 35 Madison street. 1t started at
the bottom of the stairs that furnished the on
ly mode OF exit for the tenants in a fve-story
building, barring an outside fire escape, and
IN less than five minutes swept through the
stairway to the roof, cutting off the escape OF a
score of persons, and, finding vent through
the two lower stories to the yard, barred egress
also by means OF the fire escape. The sudden
~ lmperlled tenants made rush for the roof,
but the scuttle was firmly hooked and woul d
not yield. The ascending flames drove them
10 their rooms and o scene of wild confusion
ensued. Men and women threw their chill
dren from windows and jumped after them
through the flames that swept across The yard
and caught their clothing: When the fremen
mastered the fire the dead bodies of nine per-
sons who had been burned were taken out.
Several were in ured in making their escape
and were sent to the Chambers Street Hospital.
The following were the injured: James Cas-
sidy, Mary Egan and Charles Walsh.
The scene of the holocaust, the like of
which has not occurred in the city since the
tenement-house fire in Cannon street year
ago, ana the dreadful Turner Hall calamity
about the same time, is approached through a
narrow alley, hardly wide enough to allow the
passage of portly man, between two tall ten
emenis, No. 50 and 80 Madison street. In the
front of the house of So is James Doyles liquor
store. Its back door opens directly upon mar
row hallway in the rear OF the tenement where
the fire started this morning.
Plumbers were busy at the foot of the stairs
thawing out the frozen water pipes, and for
this purpose used a gasoline apparatus. By
some means 1t was upset and the inhammable
material ran out. There was binding flash
as of an explosion of powder, puff that blew
in the door of the saloon, and in an instant
black smoke welled up the long stairway, i'm
pelled onward by a draught setting towards an
open window in the top story. There was a
momentary dead hush as the frightened
plumbers issued into the yard, and man sit
door on the advancing fire. Then there was a
wild rush overhead and the sound of breaking
glass, and the air was filled with despairing
walls OF the imprisoned men and women,
shrieks of frightened children and wild cries
for help of the bar-keeper and the scorched
plumbers, who ran wildly through the street
toward the police station. The next minute
the clangor of fire bells filled the street and
the narrow alley became jammed with firemen
and police struggling to bring help to the inn
prlsoned and burning tenants. They came too
late; the fire, finding vent through the open
doors and windows Of the untenanted ground
floor OF the house and through the door, had
seized upon shutters, window frames and the
wooden floors of balconies outside, licking
them up like tissue paper, and reaching up
ward toward the floors where the frightened
men and women huddled together, afraid to
venture out upon the fire escape that seemed
to lead into the very jaws of death, and driv-
en- from behind by the lurid flames that shone
through the chinks of the frail doors, barring
them out and encompassing them with black
and suffocating smoke, as premonition of
their approaching fate.
Eight families occupied the house, one to
each floor. On the second floor the Eaga ms
and Muldoons had, at the first alarm, escap ed
through the windows. Mrs. Mary Eagan,
widow, and her four grown children Margaret,
Thomas IN tIo i
in safety by quick jump Mrs. Muldoon,
who is over so, was less fortunate Seizine
her two grandchildren Annie aged 10, and
Kate aged Z, she sprang from the fire escape,
but In the fall sprained or broke her leg and
crawled away with difficulty. On the floor
above the fire Mr.. Reagan, who lived alone,
escaped with his neighbors, the McKenna FAM
lily, likewise by jumping. James, aged g.
Hugh, aged 4, and the baby were thrown from
the window by Charles, their eldest brother a
lad of 10. The mother, Mrs. McKenna, was
sweeping in yard when the fire broke out.
She rushed to the stairway, but was met at its
haed by a solid sheet of flame and realizing the
danger of her children reused them by shout
ing before they knew of the deadly visitor at
their door. Jump, Charles; throw them
down." the agonized mother cried, and
stretched out her arms to receive them as their
little heads looked over the window sill beside
their brother. The lad measured the distance
with his eyes: 1t was more than twenty feet,
and he shrank from the venture with the
dread of instant death, but the smoke was al.
ready filling the room and pouring through
the window, obscuring the faces of the child
rem, who now cried and stretched their hands
towards their mother. The baby's call "Mam-
ma, mamma was heard above the roar of the
ire. The mother could bear it no longer.
HCharles, for Gods sake jump" she cried in
despair, and the boy hestateG no longer-he
flung the baby luto her arms; the other child
rem followed, and he, himself, the last of all,
reached the ground in safety
On the fourth floor lived the Cassidy family
OF the same name on the first floor, and in the
fifth and topmost story Mrs. Ellen Sheridan
was at breakfast with her four children
The men there, as in all the families, had
gone to their work. AT the first alarm Mrs.
Sheridan had to run to the door and seeing the
hallway effectually blocked, turned to the
window. The flames there met her also, and
in deep despair she rushed for the scuttle in
the roof. 1t was firmly hooked and her
strength. desperate as she was, did not suffice
to open it. Retiring to her room she closed
the door on the advancing fire, but too late
more dense every moment, in which the
woman and her children groped about vainly
seeking the windows. They were found dead.
evidently choked before the flames reached
them
The Cassidy family had attempted to escape
window and flung themselves out Only two
of themt Charles and Thomas, boys of and
years were left. They were suffocated and
when found their clothes were burned The
contortions of their bodies showed an agoniz-
ing struggle for life.
Timothy Harrington, the plumber by whose
carelessness the fire was caused, states that a
green boy named McGloan, who has fled. up-
set the gasoline lamp, with which he was
thawing the pipes.