The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-21
A TENEMENT HOUSE FIRE
RESULTS 1.-THE LOSS OF NINE LIVES.
One of New York's Death Traps Occupied
BY Thirteen Families Burns-Stupid
Work On the Part of the Police
The Work ofAn Incendiary.

| hre broke out in the kitchen of the restaurant
on the store floor of the big ive-story tenement
at 3O5 Seventh-ave. Nine of the sixty odd oc-
cupants of the house lost their lives, and it is
great wonder that many more did not perish,
The dead are:
WILLIAM GLENTON, sixty years, burned
to death.
NELLIE MCGEoGHAN, twenty years,
smothered.
MARY WELLS, thirty-one years, smothered.
JANE WELLS, four years, smothered.
THOMAS WELLS, two years, smothered.
BERTHA LUSTIG, forty years, burned to
death.
WILLIAM MCKEE, forty-ive years, burned
to death.
JANE JEFFREY, sixty.fve years, smoth.
cred
Unknown woman. forty-fve years, smoth-
ered
The list of injured is:
WILLIAM GLENNoN. eighteen, badly burned.
JOHN GLENNoN, badly burned and injured.
The building was occupied by thirteen fam
lilies, who have been made temporarily home
less by the fire. The flames did not do very
much damage in the various apartments. but
burned out their strength in the Railways. The
pecuniary loss will not amount to more than
$4,000. The fire originated in the rear of John
Snyder's restaurant at an hour when all the
people in the house were sleeping soundly.
Just how the fire started is as yet mystery,
but as the restaurants cook is missing it is fair
to presume that an accident occurred while he
was making the fire in the big range. The
awful speed with which the flames swept up
through the building suggests the use of kero-
sene by the careless cook. The door leading
from the kitchen to the hallway was found
open and the great volume of fame rolled out
into the passage and swept up the stairway so
rapidly that families living on the first floor
must inevitably have perished without even so
much a warning but it happened that
the rooms directly over the restaurant were
unoccupied on account of the heat which
seemed to sift through the flooring from the
mammoth range underneath.
Less than half block away, on the corner
of Twenty-eighth-st. and the avenue stood
Policemen Warner and McCullagh, of the
Thirtieth-st. station. They received warning
from cry of pain which came from the build
ing and looking in the direction whence it
came, saw a wall of fire beating against the
front windows of the restaurant. By the time
that realizing sense of what the trouble was
broke over them a forked tongue of flame shot
out from the roof and lighted up the neighbOr-
hood. With their clubs the two officers beatin
the front door, but spiteful blaze shot out and
warned them back They tried the next door,
and in that way found an entrance. There was
no sign of life in the building and the officers
hurried from one door to another TO arouse the
inmates. Murmurings at first were heard, then
buzz of many voices which finally changed
into a vail of terror and agony from men,
women and children, struggling for their lives
In the death trap.
Fire escapes leading from the burning build
ing to the as yet untouched tenement next,
were soon filled up with half naked people,
frantic to reach the street. In the meantime
the fire department had arrived and had begun
work on tho flames and were assisting in res
cuing the frightened inmates. The flames were
extinguished easily enough by the fremen, and
the people on the fire escapes were all landed
safely. Not one person escaped down the
stairway, and the names of those who tried it
are found in the list of the dead printed above.
The search for the dead was begun as soon as
possible. The first body found was that of old
William Glennon. The remains we're discovered
by the side of the bed in his room on the
second floor. he had risen to fly with his sons,
but his old legs were not nimble enough, and
he perished. The boys were taken to
the hospital. They were badly burned on
the feet, caused by walking on the hot iron
bars of the fire escape. In the rooms of the
Wells family was a sight which can not easily
be forgotten. In the middle of the floor knelt
the mother, Mary Wells and in her dead en-
brace were her children, Jane and Thomas
They had been smothered, mercifully enough
and not burn or blister defaced the pallor Of
their countenances. The nine dead bodies
were placed in ambulances and taken to the
Thirtieth-st. station and later Coroner Hanley
gave permits to friends who claimed the re-
mains.
Snyder the keeper of the restaurant in which
the fire broke out, has been arrested on suspi-
cion OF being responsible for its origin. A
policy of insurance for 81 900 on his stock was
found in his possession and one of his en-
ployes states that be found fat scattered over
the floor of the restaurant.
One of the most notable incidents of the fire
was the gallant efforts of Ambulance Surgeon
Schaeffer of the New York hospital. When he
arrived on the scene all chance of any one es-
Gaping by the stairway was cut off, as it was
burning fercely and the halls were filed with
smoke. On hearing that Nellie McGeoghan,
aged twenty, had been cut off from escaping in
the top story, he boldly mounted the scaling
ladders and got into the fifth story by smashing
a window. By this time the crowd on the
street was enormous. Men, women and chill
dren held their breath in awe for several |
seconds that seemed minutes
AT last the doctor was seen again at the win |
dow, carrying something that. in the early /
morning light, looked like a big bundle of |
clothes. 1t was Nellie McGeoghan's inanimate |
form. He had found her, almost smothered, |
lying on her bed. Slowly, with his heavy bur- |
den, he descended the ladder and bore the girl /
to Laveny's liquor store, on the corner of /
Twenty-seventh-st. and Seventh-ave. When he /
attempted to revive her he found that she had |
perished in his arms.
''There was some terrible bungling work by /
the police at that FIRE" /" said DR.. Schaeffer, when
seen subsequently at the hospital. "Why. | /
was the only doctor on the scene and mine was
the only ambulance, and it was only luck that
got there at ALL We only received a common
hurry CALI to the Thirteenth-st. police Ista-
tion and when got there found the body of
an old man, William Glennon. He had been
suf1ocated, and after getting his name jumped
into the ambulance to return to the hospital.
Not word had been said about any of the
others, and out of curiosity alone | told the
driver to drive around Seventh-ave. When we
got to the house / stopped the ambulance and
got out and stood for a moment talking to the
policemen and firemen.
"'Are there any others burned asked.
Yes replied one of them, there are some
people up stairs
"'Where are theyY I asked.
He could not tell except that they were up
stairs. / went upstairs and in one room found
four bodies and In another three bodies. They
had been suffocated. but from the looks Of them
and from the feel of the flesh l am sure that
some of them could have been saved ii a gen.
eral call for ambulances had been sent out with
the fire alarm. There has been a great blunder
on the part of some one. All there was left for
me 10 do was to send the Glennon boys 10 the
hospital and then, with the patrol wagon,
carry the dead to the ststion-house. Young
Glennon will be ali right in few days, but his
brother, William, may die"
John Glennon tells this story: Il don't know"
said he, how | first knew IL was fire. |
smelled the smoke. and the air in my room
seemed oDDressiye but Il often smell smoke