New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-08-20
NINE LIVES LOST BY FIRE.
TENEMENT-HOUSE DEATH-TRAP.
PEOPLE BURNED AND SUFFOCATED IN
THEIR ROOMS.


WAS OPEN AT THE TIME-THE
PROPRIETOR ARRESTED
STORIES OF NARROW
ESCAPES.
Flames Of suspicious origin destroyed nine Ives
in the tenement-house No. 3O5 Seventh-ave. early
yesterday morning Twelve families were asleep
in the house at 4 AS O'Clock when the fire started
in John Snyders restaurant the first floor.
Snyder and his cook there at the time, but
the people upstairs not warned of their
danger until the rooms were full of smoke and the
stairways in the middle of The house were well
nigh impossible. There were freescapes on the
front and rear walls, connecting with the adj
Joining houses and seven Of the families used
the escapes to reach places Of safety. Two women
in another family escaped in the same way while
the man who should have led them lost his wits
and rushed to the dangerous stairways, only to
meet his death in hopeless run toward the roof.
Another man, who took two OF his children to the
roof and expected the rest Of his family TO follow
him. was burned seriously. while his wife and two
other children were suifocated in the hall. One
old man, who was too feeble to help himself. was
burned to death after his sons had rescued their
mother and while they were making frantic
efforts to help him. Others in the house either
were too slow in taking to the fre-escapes or
were overcome by smoke before they we're fairly
awake and they perished in their rooms.
The flames went up 10 the roof with such re-
markabe speed that the time for escape was brief.
Indeed, the rapid spread OF the fire led TO the
belief that kerosene had been used to make the
destruction of property more certain After the
fire was out the police carried nine mutilated
bodies to the station in Thrtieth-st and ambu-
lances conveyed two injured persons TO the New
York Hospital When the bodies had been iden-
tilted the police furnished the following list OF
dead and injured:
GLENNAN, WILLIAM, native Of Ireland, age sixty
JEFFREY, JANE same nationality, age sIxty-fvs'
sufocated.
LUsTING, BERTHA. German age forty. burned.
MEG EOGHAN. NELLY, Irish, niece of Mrs. Jenrey,
age eighteen, sufocated
MCKEE WILLIAM, Irish, age forty-seven, burned
o'CoNNoR, ANNIE, Irish, age forty servant SUMO
Gated.
WELLS MARY. Irish. age th+y-one, sufrocacd.
WELLS JANE her fouryear old daughter, s,iifoca ated.
WELLS THOMAS, her two-year old son, suhocated
INJURED.
| GLENNAN WILLIAM, jr., age eighteen severely
| burned about the head and body In an effort 10
| save his father taken to the New-fork hosplai'
recovery doubtful.
| CT LEHMAN JOHN age twenty, also slightly burned
| in attempts to rescue his parents.
WELLS, FRANK, le.t hand and ieit iooe n seso'ey -
| burned In attempt to rescue those members u
! his family who y3;re lost.
| IT, WIS said that several others were slightly
hurt but had hurried away to the homes OF their
friends without making their injuries known.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSE.
The burned tenement-house and the adjoining
houses In the block are Of the old douDle-
decker pattern, the building of which is no longer
permitted by the Health Board, for sanitary
reasons There are four stories above the grouna
| floor with narrow stairways and landings III Ihe
middle. Rooms opening directly from tie hhd-
| ings are dark and badly ventilated. Four
families have rooms on each floor. Means OF es-
cane are furnished by iron balconies Oh the brick
! walls in front and rear There are no lsdders'
but the balconies extend past the partition walls
so that persons can leave their rooms in one house
and enter the windows of the adjoining house.
| The only defect in the fre-escapes OF the burned
| tenement-house was in the flooring OF the rear
| balconies, which was made of wood instead or
iron. Those wooden floors and some rubbish on
| the balconies soon caught fire and made the bah
comics useless.
There we're rooms for sixteen families in the
house but two flats directly over Snyders restau-
| rant were vacant, one family who lived on an
| upper floor had gone TO the country and ono
family occupied two fats on the third floor. The
restaurants, IN which the HaInes suarteu, occupeu
only the north half of the ground floor, Snyders
brother having "a fsh-store in the other half
Snyder's restaurant has been kept open day and
night, and has been frequented by negroes.
The only witnesses of the outbreak Of the
fire were Snyder and his colored cook, Walter
Brooks. Brooks said he left some fat frying
ON the kitchen range, and went to a closet in
the rear The kitchen abaze few minutes
afterward Snyder was in the restaurant when
Brooks left the kitchen. He said he went TO
sweep off the sidewalk and soon saw the fire
in the kitchen Instead of giving the alarm
promptly he tried to put out the flames. After
the restaurant was blazing he sent to the police
station in Thirtieth-st. to give an alarm.
FATAL DELAY.
There was a fatal delay in summoning the
fremen When Engine No. from Twenty
ninth-st arrived the flames from the restaurant
were pouring out to the sidewalk, and the whole
|