Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-01-13
A FIRE HORROR.

r-e a ElIsG IIVANhOA~
nseuf-House In New York Cisy-Wseses
40 ChIldren Obliged TO Leap fFpn Lpfsy
ygHndows to the Pavement BeloW. N
1 XII New Yosk, Januay 4. ,
.SArS:l5 this morning frevotbke ont IN the
tenement in the rear of James> DOVES hquoy
store, IS Madison street. 1t started at the bot
tom of the stairs that furnished the only exit
for the tenants I'm the fiye-stsry building. ex-
cepting the fire-escape attached to the build
ing outside, and I'm less than five minutes
swept through the stairway to the roof, cut
ting or the escape OF a score of persons. The
flames soon found vent also through the two
lower stories, and thus barred egrcss by the
hre-escape-- The tenants, panic-stricken, made
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 firemen obtained mastery, tho
dead bodies of nine persons who had been
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
allow the passage of n portly mani between
two tall tenements, Nos. IS and 30 Madison
street. In front of tho house No. Is Is Doylc's
liquor store. Its back door opens directly
upon a narrow hallway In the rear of the t,nc-
ment where the fire. obtained its start
Plumbers were at work ut the foot of the stairs
thawing out frozen waterpipos, and for this
purpose used gasoline. The vessel was by
some means upset, and, becoming ignited,
wi wv in ha
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 a momentary hush as the fright
ened plumbers hurried into the yard. A man
sitting by the bar-room stove slammed tho
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. H.f
The barkeeper and plumbers ran through
the street to the nearby police station. Very
soon the claDg of fire-bells filed 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 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 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 hen -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 I'm the fall
broke her leg, and crawled away with diff
Guilty. ....
On the third floor, Mr.. Regain, who lived
ma family, likewise by jumping. James, aged
nine. Hugh, aged four, md the baby, were
thrown from a window by Charles McKenna,
their eldest brother, q lad OF fifteen. The
mother was sweeping in the yard when the fro
broke out. She rushed to the stairway, but
was met by 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
nized 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 dig
lance to the ground from his thiru-story
perch, and taking the baby up first, tossed IL
out, and IL fell into the arms Of its mother,
who caught the other children as they were
sent to her one by one. and finally broke tho
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 escapeto the roof, flung themselves
from the window. Two of the children,
Charles and Thomas, aged six and eight years,
remained i'm the rooms and were burned to
death. The Eagan family also leapcd to the
yard, except n child, aged two years, that was
sufrocated. 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 IL was inn
movable. She shrank back from the leap 70
the yard. Ave stories below. and, closing the
door of her apartment to keep out the rapidly
advancing flame, herself and children were
sufrocated by the smoke rapidly filling the
room.
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 n child in her
arms, endeavored to escape. Her clothing
was ablaze. 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 flesh remaining In the
hands of Doncgan.