Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1884-08-07
a Fatal NEW ToRK FIRE.
a LamftoF and Child Fatally and
others HeriOusEy Harmed.

NRw YORK, Aug. 1.-The six storiet
building, No. SO Water street, the uppei
stories OF which are occupied by tw,
families while the rest are devoted TO bus
iness purposes, caught fire this morning
OF the five persons who were In at the
time Bartholomew 0'Ksefe. aged az, jani
tor In the building WAS fatally bnrned
about the head and body; Ann Gibbons
aged 20 AMI her children George aged 6
and John aged 2,were all terribly burned
and are now In the hospital; James Glib
b0ns aged a, another child whom the
mother was unable to resoue WAS burned
| to death.
v. Martinez Ybar, tobacco merchant,
occupies the ground floor and basement
OF No. SO Water street, and II. A. VatRbie
Il Son, general merchandise, the second,
third and fourth floors. In the fifth,
John Gibbons lived with his wife Ann
and their three children, George, James
and John. Over them, In the top story,
were the rooms Of the jsnitor, Barthol-
omew 0'Keefe, and his wife, who lived
alone. The janitor had been been down
with an attack Of rheumatism, and to
the wife her fortunate escape. When the
are broke ont this morning, she was down
stairs doing her husbands work while
he. bedridden and weak, fell an easy
victim to the flames.
How the fire started Is not yet known.
II Was seen suddenly in the Gibbons
family rooms, while Mrs. Gibbons was
setting things to rights for her ohildren's
breakfast. Her husband, 3 carpenter,
had gone TO work, leaving everything
safe and the children sound
asleep. While about her household
duties Mrs. Gibbons saw the dense smoke.
She flung open the door OF the room
where her three children lay asleep. She
seized the baby and the one nearest It
and fled for life. She mounted two pairs
Of stairs to the landing when she sank
exhausted with her effort and nearly
ohoked to death with the smoke.
Brought TO consciousness by her
ohildren's cries and the stinging of the
flames which had followed her course up
the stairway, Mrs. Gibbons, by q super.
human effort gathered up her children
again and made her way to the
roof where she again sank
exhausted, the clothes Of herself and
children being In flames. Two police
officers saw the woman on the roof with
her clothes burning and sent out an
alarm. They then assembled rapidly the
stairs of the adjoining house to the root.
Mrs Gibbons and her children lay there,
their clothes burned to rags and
the flesh on their faces and hands
fearfully ainged. The police officers
tore the turning clothes off them and
carried them down stairs. The poor
w0msu then told OF the ohild she hsd left
to die bat IL was then too late to do any
thing, as the fifth story to the roof was q
,olid sheet of flame. Janitor 0'Kssie had
struggled to the stairs and WAS rescued,
too, but so badly burned that he cannot
live.
The burned people were taken to the
hospital. When the fire had been ex-
linguished, the body OF the little boy,
James Gibbons, was found near the bed,
burned to q crisp body. He had tried to
follow his mother, but had been suffocated
by the smoke and WAS burned where he
fell.
The flames made q clean sweep in the
upper two stories and burned through to
the fourth. Below that water had done
the chief damage. The loss to property
was estimated at $4,000 distributed as
tjllows: H. A. Vatable & Co., 5000, v.
Ybar, $5, 900 and the building
s5 600. The Losses in the upper stories
perhaps $1,000.