Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-02
A WHOLE BLOCK WIPED OUT.

New York Visited by Another DIsas-
trous BIaze-The Losses Foot Up q
Million DolIars-Many Narrow Es-
caPes From Injury by Firemen.
NEW YORK, March IA FIRE that broke
out at 1910 o'clock to-day in the POTTER 6
Stymus building at the corner of Forty second
strees and Lexington avenue swept almost the
entire block bounded by Lexington and Third
avenues and Forty-second and Forty-frst
streets and caused loss estimated at 81 ,000.-
900. The Potter & Stymus building covered
the entire frontage on Lexington avenue be-
tween Forty-frst and Forty second streets,
$50 feet, and extended back toward Third
avenue a distance of three hundred feet on
each street. 1t was a seven-story building of
brick and brown stone owned by Potter &
Stymus furniture manufacturers. Recently
the firm retired from business aud was sue
ceeded by the Potter & Stymus company,
which took possession of the building to-day
to carry on the manufacture of furniture.
The company occupied all the building on
the Lexington avenue front excepting the
first floor which was occupied by w. H En-
tell manufacturer of. furniture and deeora-
tions. A large wing of the building on
Forty-second street was occupied by Powell,
The fire broke out in the north
west corner of the POTTER &
Stymus building, ran through the
building like an electric fash and burst into
the cigar factory, where three hundred and
fifty men were eating luncheon. The men
dashed down the broad stairs, barely es-
Gaping from the flames that almost Instantly
seized the entire building. The instant the
firemen arrived Second Assistant Chief Nc
Cabe sent out the sthree sixes," bringing to
the scene twenty-one engine COM
panies, eight hook and ladder COM
panies and the water tower. About two
hundred and fifty policemen soon arrived
and were kept busy keeping back the crowds
that filed the streets. In twenty-eight min
utes from the time the Ere was discovered
the wall of the Potter & Stymus building on
Forty-second street fell in. The walls on
Lexington avenue followed. The wind
swept the flames east toward Third avenue
and three houses occupied as stores on the
first floors and dwellings above that
lay between the Potter & Stymus
building and corner house on Third
avenue were soon blazing while their terrified
inmates fed with what little clothing or val
uables they could clutch as they ran. The
same fate befel1 the houses on Fourteenth
street between the burning building and
Third avenue. The fremen could do nothing
to save the buildings already burning and
confined their efforts to preventing the
spread of the flames. They succeeded in saw
ing the row of houses on Third avenue form
| ing the fourth and only remaining side of
the square. The houses on Forty-hrst street
| facing the burning building were threatened
with destruction. Window panes were
cracked and broken and the wooden door and
| window frames blazed up, but streams OF
water extinguished them and preserved the
houses. The wooden girders of the elevated
road branch on Forty-second street were
almost entirely burned away near the Stymus
building, while, section of the road about
| twenty five feet long was crushed by the
falling wall
The flames from the girders of the elevated
road conducted the fire to the Vanderbilt
Hotel on the northeast corner of Forty SEQ
| ond street and Lexington avenue and the
| front of the hotel was soon in a blaze. The
hotel was saved from burning, but was
| drenchsd with water and rendered uninhab-
| table Three adjoining brown-stone flats
| caught fire in a similar manner, but also were
saved. On the west side of Lexington avenue
between Forty-frst and Forty second street,
| is the Manhattan storage warehouse contain
| ing hundreds of thousands worth of valua-
| bles. The walls cracked and blistered with
the heat and emitted clouds Of
steam as the water from dozens OF
hose was poured on them. The i'm
| rense hag-pole caught fire and blazec
above it and the fremen's axes chopped il
down and it fell toethe street withna crash
| On the northwest corner of Forty-secone
street and Lexington avenue is the Hospita
Tor the Ruptured and Crippled, in which ar
one hundred or more crippled children
Streams of water saved it. Assistant Fore
man Samuel Reed of engine 9 was struck OF
the right shoulder and his collar bone broken
Patrolman Malone was struck in the face b.
IA burning brand and badly burned an