The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1881-01-05
FRANTIC FLAMES.
DEATH AND RUIN WROUGHT BY IHR
DEMON OF TIE FIRE.
Horrible Casualty In a New York Fens-
ment House, Surprising In Terror
aud Destruction any Like Ca.
IamIty In u Narrowing
Account Of Ihe Awful Affair.

AuAuo ia luu EeRI VI JhIuuh buIAu Alluol
store, So Madison street. 1t started at the
bottom OF the atairs that furnished tho
ONLY EXIT FOR THR TENANTS IN a FIVE
STORY HOUSE,
Its back door opens directly upon a mar.
row hallway in the rear OF the tenement
where the fire obtained It's start. Plum.
bers were at work at the foot OF the stairs
out the frozen water pipes,
and for this purpose used gosoline. The
vessel was by some means upset, and be.
coming igaited there was au explosion
which blew In tho door Of the saloon. In
an instant the black smoke rolled up along
The stairway, drawn outward by draught
caused by an open window In the top
story. There was q momentary hush as
The frightened plumbers hurried into the
yard. A man sitting by the bar.rOOm
stovo slammed the hall door on the ad.
Vancing fire. Immediately there was
WILD RUSH OVERHEAD
ndthe sound Of breaking glass, and the
air was filled with the walls Of imprisoned
men and women, the shrieks ofirightened
children, and the cries for help OF the bar.
keeper and plumber, who ran through the
street to nelghboring police station, Very
soon the Clangor OF lire bells filed the air,
and the narrow alley became thronged
with hremem and police struggling to bring
help to the imprisoned and burning ten.
ants, but they came too late. The fire,
finding vent through the open doors and
windows oil the untenanted ground floor
OF the house, and through the door, had
siezed upon the shutters, window frames
and wooden floors oil the balconies outside
LICKING THRM UP LIKE 30 MUCH TISSUE PA.
PER,
and reaching upward toward the Aoors,
where the frightened men and women
together afraid to venture out
upon the fire escape, which was itself
Rtlame, while the flames within the house
were plainly visible through the Ill fitting
doors, and In less than Ave minutes swept
through the stairway 10 the roof, cutting
off the escape Of q score OF persons. The
flames soon found vent also through two
lower stories, and this barred egress by
the fire escape.
THE TENANTS, PANIC.sTRIcKEN,
made rush for the roof, but the scuttle
was firmly hooked and would not yield.
Ascending, the flames drove the people
hack into their rooms, and the widest con.
fusion 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 cloth
ing RbleZe, When tho ilremen obtained
The mastery the dead bodies Of nine per.
sons who had been burned were taken
out from the building. Several were in.
jured In their efforts to escape, and were
sent TO the hospital. The following Is q
LIST OF THE DEAD.
Ellen Sheridan, aged 43 years; Kate
IA; Maggie Sheridan, 8; Martin
3; John Walsh, 10; Thomas
0; Charles Cassidy, s; a girl
named Egan, 2, and Mrs. Sheridan, age
w.
Several persons were injured, among
them James Cassidy, Mary Eagsn and
OuhIL6d W hlou1
THE SCENE or THE CALAMITY,
the like Of which has not occurred in the
city since the tenement house fire In Can.
non street yOsr ago, and the Turner Hall
disaster about the same time, Is ap.
preached through narrow alley, hardly
wide enough to allow the passage OF q
lat N,RyA al E,N
Nos. 36 and SO Madison htrCet. In the
front Of house No. s. was Doyle'a liquor
store, which was speedily consumed.
Eight families occupied the balance OF the
house, two on each floor. On the second
floor tho Egans and Muldoons had at the
first alarm
EsCAPED THROUGH THE WINDOWS.
Mrs. Mary Egan and her four grown
children, Margaret, Thomas, Joseph and
John, reached the ground in safety by
quick jump. Mrs. Muldoon, who is over
eighty years old. was less fertunate. seiz.
ing her two grandchildren, Annie, aged
ten, aud Kate, seven years old, she sprung
from the fire escape, but In the fall spraln.
ed or broke her leg, and Crawled away
with difficulty.
On the third floor Mr.. IIcgan, who lived
alone, escaped with his neighbors.
The MCKennon family also escaped by
jumping. James, aged nine, Hugh, four,
aud the baby were thrown through win.
dow by CHARLES MCKennon, their oldest
brother, a lad OF fifteen years. The moth.
or was sweeping the yard when the Are
broke out. She rushed 10 the stairway,
but was met bya
SOLID SHEET OF FLAMES,
and realizing the danger Of ller children,
rouBed them by shouting, before they
knew Of their danger, Jump" ""Oharles,
throw them down." the sgonized mother
cried, and stretched out her, arms to re-.
Ceive them as three little hea,ls looked
over the windowsill beside their brother.
The mother appealed to him 10 throw the
children TO her and TO jump himself,
while the baby, frightened by the cries ot
The otLgrp, who were alarmed at the
stncke, which was fast lllling the room,
constantly cried, with It's little arms out.
stretched,
'.- "MAMMG, MAMMA"
The boy quickly measured the distance to
the ground from his third story perch, and
taking the baby up, arst tossed Il out, and 1t
iell into the arms Of its mother, who also
caught Tue other children as they were sent
10 her, one BY one, and finally broke the
fall Of Ohatle as he leaped, and all escaped
unhuft,
On the fourth flour lived the Uassiiy
family and another family OF Egabs, On
the hith, and topnost story, Mts Ellen
Sheridan was al breakfast with four child.
ten. The men Of these iamllleS,Gs otall the
others In the house, had gone to work
Mrs. Sheridan, at the first alarm, gathered
together the children and sought escape
BY the stairs, but the Gre had possession
Of them. There was