The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-01-13

BURNED TO DEATH.
Terrible Fate " Ten Oce.paats II . 1reuAs
ment-H0use In New York CAey-WomeA
Ana CAslaren Obliged 20 Leap mesa xoSt1
| Windows - the Pavement Below.
/ new YORK, JanuaryA
Ar Sis this morning IRE broke out in the
| tenement in the rear Of James Doyle's liquor
store. ~ Madison street. Il started at the bot.
tom of the stairs that furnished the only exit
| for the tenants In the nve-story building. ex,
cepting the fire-escape attached to the build.
ing outside. and In less than five minutes
swept through the stairway to the roof, cut
ting on the escape of score Of persons Tho
flames soon found vent also through the two
lower stories, and thus barred eRress by the
nre-escape. The tenants, panfc-stricken, made
| . rush for the roof. but the scuttle was firmly
hooked, and would not yield. Ascending, the
flames drove the people back within their
| rooms. The widest confusion followed. Men
and women threw their children from the
windows and jumped after them through the
flames that swept across the yard and set their
clothing ablaze.
When the firemen obtained mastery, the
dead bodies of nine persons who had been
burned we're taken out from the building.
Several were injured In their efforts to escape,
and were sent to the hospital.
The scene Of the calamity Is approached
through narrow alley hardly wide enough to
allow the passage OF portly mani between
two tall tenements Nos. 81 and 81 Madison
street. In front of the house No. IS is Doyle's
liquor store. Its back door opens directly
a ho1l 1,~ .
fnent where the fire obtained its start.
Plumbers were at work at the foot of the stairs
thawing out frozen waterpipes, and for this
purpose used gasoline. The vessel was by
some means upset, and, becoming ignited,
there was an explosion, which blew in the door
Of the saloon.
In an instant black smoke rolled up the
long stairway, drawn onward by the draught
caused by an open window in the top story.
There was q momentary hush as the fright
ened plumbers hurried into the yard. A man
sitting by the bar-ro0m stove slammed the
hall door on the advancing fire. Immediately
there was wild rush overhead, and the air
was filled with the walls of imprisoned men
and women. shrieks Of frightened children,
and cries for help.
The barkeeper and plumbers ran through
the street to the nearby police station. Very
soon the clang Of fre-bells filled the street,
and the narrow alley became filed with fire.
men and police struggling to bring help to the
imprisoned and burning tenants. They came
too late. The fire, finding vent through the
open doors and windows of the untenanted
ground door Of the house and through the
door, had seized upon the shutters, window
frames, and wooden floors of the balconies
outside, licking them up like SO much tissue
paper, and reaching upward toward the floors
where the frightened occupants were huddled
together.
Eight families occupied the house, two ON
each floor. From the second floor the Esgans
and MuldoOns had at the first alarm escaped
through the windows. Mrs. Mary Eagan
widow, and her four grown children, Marga-
ret, Thomas, Joseph and John, reached the
ground in safety by quick jump. Mrs. Null
doom. who is over eighty years old, was less
fortunate. Selling her two grandchildren,
Annie. aged ten years, and Kate. aged seven,
she sprang from the fire-escape. but in the fall
broke her leg, and crawled away with diff
Guilty.
On the third floor, Mr.. Regain, who lived
alone. escaped with his neighbors, the McKen.
ma family, likewise by jumping. James, aged
nine. Hugh, aged four, and the baby, were
thrown from q window by Charles McKenna,
their eldest brother, q lad Of fifteen. Tho
mother was sweeping in the yard when the fire
broke out. She rushed to the stairway, but
was met by a solid sheet of flame, and realiz-
ing the danger of her children, reused them
by shouting, before they knew Of their danger.
Jump, Charles: throw them down." the ago
ntzed mother cried, and stretched out her
arms to receive them as the three little heads
looked over the window sill beside their broth
er. The mother appealed to Charles to throw
the children to her and then to jump him
self. The boy quickly measured the dis
lance to the ground from his thiru-stOry
perch, and taking the baby up first, tossed it
out, and it fell into the arms Ut its mother,
who caught the other children as they were
sent to her one by one. and finally broke the
fall of Charles as he leaped, and all escaped
unhurt.
On the fourth floor lived Cassidy and an
other family Of Eagans. The Cassidy family,
unable to escape to the roof, flung themselves
from the window. Two OF the children,
Charles and Thomas, aged six and eight years,
remained in the rooms and were burned to
death. The Eagan family also leaped to the
yard, except child, aged two years, that was
suffocated. Mary Eagan, in the fall, was badly
injured.
On the fifth and topmost story Mrs. Ellen
Sheridan was at breakfast with her four chill
dren. At the first alarm she gathered to-
gether the children and sought to escape by
the stairs, but the fire had possession of them.
There was no succor from the street, and she
sought the scuttle in the roof, but it was i'm
movable. She shrank back from the leap to
the yard, Ave stories below, and, closing the
door of her apartment to keep out the rapidly
advancing flame, herself and children were
suffocated by the smoke rapidly filing the
room.
A youth named Donegan, through an adjoin-
ing house, had reached the roof of the burn
ing building. and, with an AK, demolished tho
scuttle. Kate Sheridan, with a child in her
arms, endeavored to escape. Her clothing
was abiaze. As the girl nearly reached the top
she extended her arm to Donegan, who
grasped it, but the flesh peeled from the bone,
and the girl and child fell back into the flames,
pieces of the charred aesh remaining in the
hands of Donegan.
Another victim Of the fire was found this
afternoon. making the total ten. This addi-
ton to the number is the babe Of Mrs. Cas-
sidy, which was discovered wrapped in q
blanket and clasped to the breast Of ito dead
mother.
Timothy Harrington, the plumber, Is arrest
Cd. His hands are burned He charges the
whole disaster to the carelessness of his boy.
helper named McGloan, who has disappeared.
Their employer, Mr.. Patten, has also been ar.
rested.
The Wheat Crop OF 1880 and 1879.
Mr.. CHARLES WoRTHINGroN, Statistician of
the Department OF Agriculture, has completed
his hnal tnvestig ATOMS and compilations in
regard to the wheat crOp of the United States