The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-13
TERRIBLE WORK or THE FLAMES.

1 "
the Nation stands.-Charleston 1News ant
Courier.
TERRIBLE WORK or THE FLAMES
4 Human Holocaust In New Yorlk-Nint
Persons Burned to Death In Madison
Street.
At S.15, on the morning of the I'LL
instant, q fire broke out in tenemen
house in the rear of James Doyle's liquo
store, at Madison street, in New York, il
which nine persons perished. 1t started
at the bottum of the stairs that furnished
the only mode of exit for the tenements
of the i've story building, barring outside
fire escapes, and in less than five minutes
swept through the stairway to the roof
cutting of the escape of score of per
sons. The suddenly imperiIled tenants
made rush for the root, but the scuttlt
was firmly hooked and would not yield
The ascending flames drove them back
in their rooms and scene of the widest
confusion ensued. Men aud women threw
their children from he windows and
jumped after them through the fame:
that swept across the yard and caugh,
their clothing. When the fremen mas.
tered the raging element, the dead bodies
Of nine persons who had been burned
were taken out. Several were injured in
making their escape aud were sent to
Chambers Street Hospital.
The scene of the dreadful holocaust
the like of which has not occurred in
New York since the tenement house fire
in Common street more than q year ago,
and the dreadful Turner Hall calamity
about the same time, is approached
through narrow alley, hardly wide
enough to allow the passage of portly
man, between two tall tenements, No. 35
aud 80 Madison street. In front Of No.
81 is james Doyle's liquor store. Its
back door opens directly upon the mar
row hallway in the rear tenement, where
a start was given to this mornings fire.
Plumbers were busy at the foot Of the
stairs thawing out frozen water pipes, and
for this purpose used gasoline apparatus.
BY some means it was upset and the ill.,
aammabe material ran out. There was
binding flash as of an explosion, that
blew in the door Of the saloon, and in an
instant black smuke welled up the long
stairway, impelled by the draught setting
towards the open windows in the top
story. The fire finding vent through the
open doors and windows of the untenan.
ted ground floor of the house, 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 frightened men and women hud.
died together, afraid to venture out upon
the tireescape that seemed to lead into
the very jaws of death. Eight families
occupied the house, two on each floor.
On the second flour the Egans and Mul.
doons had the first alarm and escaped
through the windows. Mrs. Mary Egan,
widow, and her four grown children,
Margaret, Thomas, Joseph and John,
reached the ground in safety by quick
Jump. Mrs. MuldooD, who is over eighty
years old, was less fortunate, seizing her
two grand children, Annie, aged 10; and
Kate, aged 7; she sprang from the fire
escape, but in the fall spraiued or broke
her ley, and sue crawled away with diff.
Guilty.
On the floor above, Mr. Egan who
lived alone, escaped with bis neighbors.
The McKana family likewise by jump
ing; james, aged s.; Hugh, aged 4, and
baby; were thrown throug b the window
by Charles, their eldest brother, lad OF
Is. The mother, Mrs. Kama, was sweep
ing in the yard when the fire broke out ;
she rushed to the stairway, but was met
by q solid sheet of flame and realizing
the danger of her children, reused them
by shouting before they knew of the
approach OF the deadly visitor. "Jump,
Charles, and throw them down." the
the agonized mother cried, and stretched
out her arms to receive them, as three
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 sbrank from the
venture with dread of instant death.
But the smoke was already filling the
room and pouring through the window.
The children now cried and stretched
their bands towards their mother. The
babys call, "Mama Mama !" was heard
above the roar Of the fire aud clamor OF
the streets. The mother cried "Charlie,
for Gud's sake, jumpP' and the boy flung
the baby into her arms. The other chill
dren ollowed--himself leaping last, all
reaching the ground in safety. On the
fourth floor lived the Cassidy family and
the Egaus, another family but OF the
same name as those on the first floor, and
in the filth and topmost story Mrs. Ellen
Sheridan was at breakfast with her four
children. The men, as in all the other
families, had gone 10 their work. At the
first alarm Mrs. Sheridan ran to the door,
and, seeing tue hallway eaectually block
ed, turned 10 the window. The flames
there met her also, and in despair she
rushed for the scuttle on the roof. 1t
was firmly hooked, and her strength,
desperate as she vas, did not suffice t.
open. Returning to her room she closed
the door on The advancing fire, but toe
late-thc rooms were filled with smoke
growing more dense every moment, i'll
Which the woman and her children
CROPPED about, yaiDly seeking the window
They were found dead. evidently choked
before the flames reached them. The
Cassidy family had attempted to escape
by the root, also, and failing had reached
the windows and flung themselves out
only two Of them, Charles and Thomas
boys of six and eight years, were left
They we're sufocated, and when found
their clothes were burned. Of the Egaf
family all were saved. A little girl Of
two years escaped by throwing hersel
into the yard, but Mary Egan WAS badly
injured in the fall and Was taken to the
hospital. The whole WAS over in les
time by far than it takes to tell it. Tht
yard WAS filled with writhing bodies O
scorched and injured women, and police