The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-01-14
A FIRE HORROR.

A FIRE HORROR.
Fate OF Ten OceuPants II . Tenes
ue>t-Houso In New York Clty-WOnea
and Children Obliged to Leap from Lefty
Windows to the Pavement Below.
NEW YORK, january
Ar Sis this morning fire broke out in tho
tenement in the rear Of James D6yle's liquor
store, IS Madison street. It started at the bot
tom of the stairs that furnished the only exit
for the tenants in the flve-stsry building. ex.
cepting the fireescape attached to the build
ing outside, and in less than five minutes
swept through the stairway to the ROOF, CUT
ting of the escape of score OF persons inc
flames soon found vent also through tho two
lower stories and thus barred eRress Oy the
fire-escape. The tenants, panic-stricken' maoe
a 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 fremen obtained mastery, tho
dead bodies Of nine persons who had oeen
burned were 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 q narrow alley fhardly wide enough to
allow the passage of portly man, D-twecn
two tall tenements, Nos. IS and 81 Ma fison
street. In front of the house No. IS Is Doyle's
LIQUOR store Its back door opens directly
upon a narrow hallway in the rear of tho tene-
ment where the fire obtained its start.
Plumbers were at work at the foot OF tho stairs
thawing out frozen waterpipes. and for this
purpose used gasoline. The vessel was by
some means upset, and, becoming 1guited,
there was an explosion, which blew In the door
Of the saloon.
|. In an instant black smoke rolled up tho
long stairway, drawn onward by the draugns
caused by an open window in the top story.
There was q momentary hush as the fright
ened plumbers hurried into the yard. man
sitting by the bar-room stove slammed inc
hall door on the advancing fire. Immediately
there was q wild rush overhead, and the ar
was filed with the walls of imprisoned men
/ and women, shrteks OF frightened cnliofen'
and cries for help.
The bar-keeper 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 filled with nre-
| men and police struggling to bring help 10 tho
| imprisoned 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 the shutters, window
frames, and wooden floors of the balconies
| outside, licking them up like SO mucn tissue
| paper and reaching upward toward the hoors
| 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 tho
ground in safety by a quick jump. Mrs. Null
doom, who is over eighty years old, was less
fortunate SEEKING 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 0ay with oiIn'
Guilty.
On the third floor, Mr.. Regan, 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. The
mother was sweeping in the yard when the ire
broke out. She rushed to the stairway, but
was met by a solid sheet Of flame, and reallz-
ing the danger of her children, reused them
by shouting, before they knew of their danger.
Jump Charles; throw them down" the ago
nized mother cried, and stretched out mel
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 thiro-story
perch, and taking the baby up first, tossed II
) out, and it fell into the arms Ut its mother
who caught the other children as they wert
sent to her one by one. and finally broke tn
fall of Charles as he leaped, and all escaped
. unhurt.
On tie fourth floor lived Cassidy and an
. other family of Eagans. The Cassidy family
: unable toescape to the roof, flung themselve
from the window. Two OF the children
: Charles and Thomas aged six and eight years
. remained in the rooms and were burned T.
! death. The Eagan family also leaped to tn
yard, except a child, aged two years, that wa
; suffocated. Mary Eagan, in the fall, was badl
> injured.
On the fifth and topmost story Mrs. Ellel
Sheridan was at breakfast with her four chi
= dren At the first alarm she gathered tG
y Rether the children and sought to escape b
: the stairs, but the fire had possession of then
There was no succor from the street, and sh
y sought the scuttle in the roof, out 1t was I'm
movable. She shrank back from the leap
y the yard, Hve stories below, and, closing tn
. door of her apartment to keep out the rapid
> advancing fame, herself and children WEI
!. suffocated by the smoke rapidly filing tn
- room.
y Ayouth named Donegan, through an adjoil
- ing house, had reached the roof of the burr
p ing building. and, with an az, demolished th
scuttle Kate Sheridan, with child in h<
arms, endeavored to escape. Her clothin
l. was ablaze. AS the girl nearly reached the to
s. she extended her arm to Donegan, WI
grasped it, but the flesh peeled from the bon
and the girl and child fell back into the flame
l. pieces of the charred flesh remaining In Il
:, hands of Donegan.
r Another victim of the fire. was found tn
10 afternoon. making the total ten. This add
u ton to the number is the babe OF Mrs. Ca
3 sidy, which was discovered wrapped In
blanket and clasped to the breast Of its dea
mother.
Timothy Harrington. the plumber, Is arree
~ ed. His hands are burned. He CHARGES Il
y whole disaster to the carelessness Of his BIO
~ helper named McGloan, who has disappeare
III Their employer, Mr.. Patten, has also been q