Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-04
EASTERN, HAPPENINGS.
Human Beings Horribly
Burned To Death.
FIRE IN A TENEMENT DEATH TRAP
A List Of the Victims-Hope Revived
In the Breast of Maxwell.
The Border War.

afternoon. Six more burned 80 badly
that they will probably die, were re-
moved to various hospitals. The house
was ramshackle affair, hidden in the
middle of the block, the only entrance tc
it being a narrow alleyway from the
Bowery. In the Gagged building lived
about $50 people. Each Of the six floors
was occupied by single family, the head
of which was tailor who made clothing
for cheap wholesale clothing house,
and employed from fifteen to twenty
men, women and children in addition to
his own family, in making up clothing.
They were all Polish Jews, and employ
ers and employed worked, ate and slept
in the crowded rooms of the dingy
tenement. At about 4:15 O'Clock this
afternoon while all the occupants of the
building were busily at work in the clos
ing hours preceding their Sabbath eve,
flames broke out on the lower floor. The
fire had, when discovered, already gain
ed such headway that it was in full pos
sition of the stairway and escape by it
seemed impossible. Many of
THE FRIGHTENED INMATES
rushed down through the flames and in
to the narrow courtyard, with clothes
ablaze and hand and bodies burned. Six
of them were so severely burned that
they were taken to the hospital and may
die. There were fire escapes on the
front and rear of the house.
They were perpendicular iron ladders
running down the rear of the building,
but before any of the inmates had tried
to escape by them the flames had as
cended through the house and were
reaching the front windows, so that
descent by the fire escapes was i'm
possible. One man already half burned
to death leaped from the fifth story win
dow and fell mangled mass of flesh in
the the little courtyard. Others jumped
from the second story windows and es-
capped with bruises. The enormous
crowds that had gathered shook with
dread and sympathy as some of the
wounded shrieked and others groaned
with pain or feebly moaned in anguish.
One poor woman lay upon her back in a
little store in the Bowery, with not only
her clothing but the hair of
head burned off. 1t seemed as
if she must be dead, but slight up
heaval of her bosom told that life still
remained. She was unconscious and the
surgeon said she would not live to reach
the hospital. Another young girl was
DELIRIoUs WITH PAIN.
She was not 80 badly burned as the
others, but in mad jump from one
of the windows she had received internal
injuries, and also cut terrible cash in
the side of her head, from which the
blood rushed forth, giving her ghastly
appearance. She raved and screalc ed,
and had to be held by two attendants
while her wounds were being dressed.
A. H. Sheldon, manager Of the Peoples
Theater, on first discovering the fire
sent out the alarm and the firemen re-
sponded, but when they arrived the
flames already had complete possession
of the house and nothing could be done
to save it, and little to save the inmates.
Charles w. Norman, property man of
the Peoples Theater, with several of his
comrades, procured small ladder which
they stretched over to a window of the
burning building. A woman, with her
hair and clothing already ablaze, ap-
peared at the window and Norman called
to her to cross over on the ladder. She
cried back she
COULD NOT LEAVE HER CHILDREN.
Norman tried to cross over on the lad
der but the flames drove him back and
he could not save her. Afterwards the
charred body OF the mother and two
children were found in the building.
Three men, however, avsiled themselves
of the ladder and escaped to the roof of
the theater. When the fremen had at
last drowned the flames so they could
enter the house, they searched floor by
floor as they assembled, and on the
third floor they found the burned bodies
of man, woman and boy. On the
fourth floor they found five bodies
80 badly burned that it was impossible
to tell whether they were those of men or
women. On the fifth floor no bodies
were found, but on the sixth five more
bodies were found and they were also
burned 80 that it could not be told
whether they were men or women; this
made thirteen bodies found in the build
ing. That of men who leaped from the
fifth story Of the window increased
THE DEATH LIST
To fifteen, while it is feared the death of
some, if not all those in the hospital, will
make the number greater. Several OF
the bodies were burned so badly that
they fell apart when they were removed,
and the fremen were obliged to lower
them from the windows in nets.
The names of the dead as far as known
are: Phillip Klople, 42 years old, who
jumped from the fifth floor; Mrs. Adelia
Gruft and her two children, Joseph and
Celia, six years old. The mother is the
woman who refused to escape because
she would not desert her children. Her
husband escaped with an infant in his
arms and was almost crazy with grief az
the loss of his wife and two other child.
rem. The other bodies are at the morgue
waiting Identification. The fire started
on the first floor in the apartment OF
Emma Stevenson, janitress of the build
ing, and was caused by the explosion o
a kerosene oil stove.
CORRECTED LIST OF FATALITIES.
The list of killed as corrected to mid
night is given herewith:
Gruft, Adele, aged 28, with her new.
born babe, burned to death.
Gruft, Joseph, years, burned to death
Gruft, Celia, 4 years, burned to death
Tatopp, Philip, % years, killed by
jumping from sixth story.
Sch wartz, Henry, tailor, suffocated OF
fourth floor.
A woman. unknown, at morgue, ,burnet
beyond recognition.
Abram Schneider, 36 years, burned tt
death.
Solomon Weinberg, burned almost be