The evening world., 1888-01-03
SAVED FROM DEATHS GRASP.
EIGHT INMATES OF A BAKERY NEARLY
SUFFOCATED.
A Fire Patrolman Overcome Mt First Recov-
ers In Time to send Out an
Gaping GINS from n leaking Pipe the
Cause of the Trouble-Men aud Women
Dragged from Their Beds.

Cause of the Troubie-Mcn and Women
Dragged from Their Beds.
Death from asphyxiation was the fate which
the eight inmates of Charles Lange's bakery,
at 672 Third avenue, very narrowly escaped
at early dawn this morning,
The store is n large double fronted one
stretching back about ~seventy-five feet, the
rear part being divided by partitions into
sleeping and living rooms for the wait
resses and journeymen. The bake-house and
ovens are in the basement underneath the
store.
The original cause of the trouble was a fire
which broke out in the woodshed adjacent to
tie bake-house at 4 o'clock yesterday morn
ing. II reduced the ~woodshed to ashes,
Quilted the bake-house, destroyed a 5000 stock
OF -four and broke its way through the floor
irg of the store.
After the firemen had ~extinguished the
flames they found there was q great leak of
gas from the pipes directly underneath the
stone floor, and two men were sent by the
Consolidated Gas Company to repair it. They
worked for about twenty minutes and then
told MIR. LANCE it was all right.
IL btoit ulIu 4 COltchtS DtlhS IlSuIcu ~
Fire Patrol left John Arnold, of Company 3, in
charge until the loss could be officially esti-
nnted.
Mr.. LANCE told his men and girls to put
things to rights and they worked all the even
ing. At II o'clock they retired to the CON-
prtments in the rear.
The mattresses were Maggie Williams aged
fifteen, and Lena Goerger, aged twenty-five,
and the journeynlen were Otto Bernhardt,
ferdinand Andreano, Max Kuhn and Simon
schmidt. MT; Augustus Ihumm' OF i2l
Lange's, on a New Years visit, also slept in
he rear.
Fire Patrolman Arnold made regular rounds
Through the store and the upper floors until
ID o'clock. There had been q strong smell of
|gas in the place all day, but it was thought to
be the lingering trace of what had leaked be-
fore the gasmen came.
Furthermore the smell of the gas was partly
disguised by the odor of charred wood from
the remains of the fire.
At 3 o'clock Arnold advised the tenants of
the upper floors to keep their windows open,
and then he sat Town by the stove. He does
not seem TO have exercised as much fore.
thought for the women and men within a few
feet of where he was stationed as for those
further off.
He did not open the doors and windows of
the store, and the pent-up gas gradually filed
the room.
1t stole over the senses of the fire patrolman
so that he lost consciousness and it had a still
deeper effect on the occupants of the narrow
sleeping apartments.
At 8 o'clock Arnold awoke, staggered to
his feet, and mt once realized the true state of
affairs, Without losing a moment he pulled
open the doors leading to the yard and hall
and made his way to the street, stopping on
the way to drag workman Kuhn out of his
cot.
Patrolman Peter Helmes, of the East Fifty
first street station, was fortunately within hail
ing distance, and he came and helped to
rescue the partially asphyxiated sleepers.
Word was also sent to Mr.. Lange's other store
at go Second avenue, and he ran over in lis
night clothes.
The first to be rescued were the girls, Maggie
and Lena. They We're unconscious, and it
was at first thought they We're dead. After
breathing the cool air of the street for a few
minutes, however, they revived.
The men We're all seriously affected. MIR.
Thumm especially.
He lay nearer TO where the gas escaped than
any of the others, and n few more minutes
spent in his bed might have been fatal.
The sufferers were taken to the drugstore
of Frank E. Mclean and restoratives were
applied. Ambulances came from Bellevue
and the Presbyterian hospitals, and the doc
tors were able to give all needed aid ON the
spot.
After the evil was lone the gas company
sent men, who etfectually stopped the leak.