Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-02-03
IN 4 DEATH TRAP.
GREAT FIRE IN NEW YoRK-sEvERAL LIVES
LosT-A TERRIBLE SCENE AT MIDDAY.

GREAT FIRE IN NEW YoRK-sEvERAL LIVES
LosT-A TERRIBLE SCENE AT MIDDAY.
The large brown stone building on the
north side of Beekman st., extending from
Park row to Nassau ST., WAS burned on Tues
day. 1t was SO constructed as to give the
quickest possible sweep to the flames and to
obstruct the efforts of occupants TO escape.
The fire is thought to have started from a
defective hue, and it ran through the building
with appalling rapidity. TIE nuLAber of
tenants was large on every Aoor except the
one nearest the roof, and these tenants en-
ployed many people. There was a wild rush
for safety. Two persons, whose escape was
cut off, jumped to the sidewalk and received
| fatal injuries. Others were suffocated or
overiaken by the flames. The loss of life is
at least six, and may prove to be larger.
The loss Of property WAS nearly a million
dollars Several of the large buildings close
by were damaged. The burned building
was owned by Orlando b. Potter, and was
known as The World building, having been
occupied by that newspaper until a few
months ago, The Times building was only
saved from destruction by the thick and sub
| stantial party wall which separated it from
| the World building The walls of the burned
building were of stone, but the interior was
constructed wholly of wood, which had be-
| come dry and infammable from age, and the
| building had long been looked on as death
trap 1t was filled with long and narrow
| passages, from which numbers of offices
| opened, and the stairway, from the street to
the fifth story, ran directly through the mid
die of the building forming as fine a conduc-
tor for the flames as the ordinary elevator
| shaft. The building was occupied by several
newspaper offices, patent offices, and offices
for lawyers and advertising agents, and tons
of old papers and manuscripts were stored
within its walls, offering most available food
for the flames. Among the newspapers
burned out we're the Scientific American the
New York Observer, and the Turf, Field and
Farm. Mum & Co. are heavy losers in mod
| els, patent papers, etc. The stores on the
lower floor were occupied by the rubber
betting and packing company. The spread
of the fire was so rapid that there was no
time to save or remove anything There
were probably $50 persons in the building at
the time the fire broke out. Many of these
were cut OF from escape by the stairway and
hung out of windows till they were rescued
| by the firemen, or fell into the street.
Five minutes after the first alarm the en-
! tire building seemed to be in flames, and the
flames shot 80 feet into the air above the roof,
A young girl, cut off from the stairs, jumped
from fourth-story window and was killed I;
| her head was crushed almost beyond recogni-
ton. The negro janitress of the building
jumped from an upper window, struck on her
back on the pavement and was killed. On the
| upper floor men were seen holding the hands
of women, evidently encouraging them to
| calmness. Three women ran on the roof and
fell through skylight. Two men hung from
the window sill by their finger ends, but the
| ladders were too short to reach them they
were saved by fremen mounting on one
another's shoulders until the men could drop
into their arms. Several people descended
from the burning building by telegraph poles
A boy leaped from the ffth-story window
and the telegraph wires broke his fall he
was not dangerously hurt. Several men were
saved by jumping down on the awning of an
express wagon. A bootblaok seeing some
men entangled in the telegraph wires climb
ed pole and cut the wires, releasing them
from their critical position.
One woman was seen to fall back into the
flames after a vain effort to escape through a
| window
Thursdays estimate places the dead at 7
and the missing at 7.