Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-20
A Death Trap Tenement House in
New York Takes Fire.
At Last Accounts Nine Dead Bodies Had
Been Taken from the Ruins and
Given to Their Friends.
A CHASTITY Scene in One of the ROoms-Aary
Wells Found with Her Two Children
In Her Arms Dead.
HORRIBLE FIRE

five story tenement, 3O5 Seventh ave-
nue.. Nine of the sixty odd occupants of
the house lost their lives and it is a great
wonder many more did not perish. The
dead are:
VIM. GIennon, burned to death.
Nellie McGlaghan, smothered.
Mary Wells, smothered.
| Jane Wells, smothered.
| Thomas Wells, smothered.
Bertha Hustle, burned to death.
Jane Jeffries. smother ed.
8 Unknown woman, smothered.
| The injured are:
William Glennon, badly burned.
John Glennon, badly burned and In
| jured.
The building was occupied
BY THIRTEEN FAMILIES
| who have been made temporarily home
less by the fire. The flames did not do
much damage in the various apartments
| but burned out their fury in the Railways.
| The loss will not amount TO more than
| one thousand dollars.
! The fire originated in the rear of Snv-
| deT's restaurant at an hour
when all the people in the house
were sleeping soundly. Just how
/ fire started IS mystery, but as the res
| taurant cook is missing it is fair to pre-
| sumo the accident occurred while he was
| making q fire in the big range. The
! awful speed with which the flames swept
! up through the building suggests the use
! of kerosene by the careless cook. The
| door leading from the kitchen to the
| hallway was found open, and the great
volume of flames rolled into the passage
| and swept up the stairway so rapidly
| that families living on the first
! floor must have persisted without
! even so much as q warning, but it so
! happened that the rooms directly over
| the restaurant were Unoccupied.
| Less than half q block away stood PO-
! licemen Warner and Mccullough. They
! received warning from a cry of pain
which came from the building and look
| ing in the direction whence it came saw
/ the wall OF fire beating against the front
windows of the restaurant.
THEN FORKED-TONGUED FLAMES
shot out from the roof and lighted up
the neighborhood. With their clubs the
! officers beat in the front door, but
| the spiteful blaze shot out and
warned them back. They tried the
| next door and in that way found en-
! IIduC0. 1uSI6 WAS uO sigh VI ll16 III bAAO
/ building, and the officers hurried from
one door to another to arouse the in
mates. Murmurs at first were heard,
| then the buzz of many voices, which
| finally changed into awful terror and
I agony from men, women and children
| struggling for their lives in the death
! trap. The fire escapes leading from the
burning building to the, as yet, IN
| touched tenement next door were soon
| filed up with
! HALF NAKED PEOPLE
frantic to reach the street. In the mean
time the fire department had arrived and
had begun work on the fire and were as
sisting in Tescuiug the people. The
| flames were put out easily enough by the
firemen and the people on the fire escapes
were landed safely. Not one person es-
capped down the stairway, and none of
the few who tried it but are found in the
list of dead printed above. Search for the
dead was begun as soon as possible.
The first body found was that of old
William GIennon. His remains were
| 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 persisted.
| 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 cannot be easily forgotten.
In the middle of the floor
KNELT THE MOTHER,
Mary Wells, and IN her dead embrace
were her children, Jane and Thomas.
| They had been smothered mercifully
| not a HrfrD or bIisfaT. dafapad
the palIor of their countenances-
The nine dead bodies were placed in
ambuiances and taken to Thirtieth street
station. and later Coroner Handy gave
| permits to friends who claimed the re-
mains.
SNYDER ARRESTED.
SNYDER, the keeper of the restaurant
in which the fire broke out, has been ar
rested on suspicion of being responsible
for its origin A policy of insurance for
$1,000 on his stock was found in his pos
session, and one of his employees states he
found fat scattered over the floor of the
| restaurant.
One of the most notable incidents Of
the fire was the gallant efforts of Ambu-
lance Surgeon Schaeffer OF the New York
hospital When he arrived on the scene
all chance of any one escaping by the
stairway was cut off, as 1t was burning
fierceIy, and the halls filed with smoke.
On hearing that Nellie McGeoTghan,
aged twenty-eight had been cut of from
escape in the top story, he boldly
| mounted scaling ladders and got into the
fifth story window by smashing win
dow By this time the crowd on the
the street was enormous Men, women
and children
HELD THEIR BREATH
in awe Tor several seconds that seemed
minutes. At last the doctor was seen
.sagadn at the window, carrying something
that in the early morning light looked
like big bundle of clothes. Il was Nell
lie McGeorghan He had found her
almost smothering lying on her bed. He
descended the ladder and bore the girl to
LavanY liquor store on the corner OF
Twenty street aud Seventh ave-