Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-08-04
TERRIBLE FACTORY FIRE
ABOUT SEVENTEEN PERSONS
 BURNED TO DEATH.
Jumping From the Windows Only to Die. Notwithstanding Scenes tn n Big Build
 Ing Filled With Tailor shops.

NEW YORK, Aug. 4..-Flames in rear building adjoining :he Peoples Theatre in the Bowery yesterday afternoon caused greater loss of life than has occurred at any fire n this city in many yerrs. Men, women and children, to the number or SIX teen, were burned to death in the building. Several others were burned seriously while escaping, and few of them diec be- fore the flames were eXnn9uished All oI tho victims were Polish Hebrews.
 The fire was caused by the explosion of a kerosene oil stove on the first floor ot the factory.
 Bremen and policemen were promptly summoned, but the flames spread rapidly, and the building was ablaze from top to bottom before there was time for any or ganized work of rescue from the outside There were many stckening sights while the work of extingushing the flames was in progress and later when the charred and disfgured corpses were being carried out of the ruins.
 The fire was discovered by the Peoples Theatre employees and au alarm at once turned in. Aid was then offered to the tallors in the burning building, but they were too busy throwing ready mode cloth- ing out of the window to realize their peril. When the heat besame uncomfortable they attempted an escape by means of ladder that haG been pushed from the window Of an adjoining building to a window in the buruing one. Several succeeded ill crossing iu safety when the ladder slipped off at one end and several men dumped into the burunn ruins.
 Men with theIr clothes on fire and with the burning flesh fairly dropping from their hands and faces were staggering out of the building when thh fire engines
 rolled up in Chrystie street and in the
 Bowery. Faclny the narrow court in the back of the ''White House" are three small windows in tho sec oud, third and fourth stories, and to
 them there was q crush or CraZed people,
 horing that this would afford them means
 of escape. Those on tke second floor could
 crawl out of the window on narrow ledge
 that ran along at the rear of the court. Many of them did so, but the crush around the windows was so great that few could get out so wild and uncomfortable had the people become.
 One girl, Ada Frank, seeing all avenues of escape cut off spraug from the third floor window and tried to catch light
 rope that was hanging below her She did
 so, but struck the ledge as she fell and her grasp on the line was broken. She fell to the pavement, tracturing her skull death came from the man. But he lost
 
 and with terrible cry his fingers loosened their grasp and he shot down the narrow shaft to the stones, where he lay burned
 and crushed into an uustghtly form, put still living.
 Another mbn. whose named could not be learned, jumped from the third floor and tried to catch the ledge. He, too, missed | his aim and fell, being nearly killed by the | concussion.
 | Men had hardly time to carry her away | when loud shriek caused the watchers | to look up, and there, hanging by his
 hands from the sill of the window on the | fourth floor, was ono of the men. Ills | clothing was on fire aud he was shrleking 1 for help. None came, and the flames In | tho mans clothing burned deeper into | hisl flesh. still he cluug hravely to
 the Stone cross piece. It was torture to | those who watched him, and shriek after l shriek caused by the flames and fear of l Ambulances from i've hospitals were l kept busy carting of the dead and injured |; | several of the dead a"e unrecognizaSIe aud l few of the injured now in the hospitals l will die.
 1 The building in which the fire occurred l was a brick structure filled with tailor | shops.
 l The bodies of ten men, two children and | two women have been taken from the rulns | and & man and woman died in an adjoining
 pawnshop where they had been carried. 1 Besides these four bodies were taken to the | morgpe during the progress of the fire. | Bremen aye hard at work hunting for the | bodies, and it is feared that the number 1 will be greatly increased to-day.