Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-07-18
NEW YoRK,s MIGHTY pLAzE.


 The Immense Western Union Block
 Reduced to RuinA-Lives saved By Brave Bremen.
 NEW YORK, July 1S,-At 2 o'clock this morning fire was discovered in the large building of the Western Union Telegraph company corner of Dey street and Broadway. The fire was discovered by a messenger boy, who saw flames shooting from a table in the distributing room. He quickly gave the alarm and his cries nearly precipitated a panic. Women screamed and the men rushed out of doors, while the flames spread with remarkable rapidity. The room filled with smoke and the employees seemed to have lost their reason and fell over each other in their mad rush for the street.
 By this time the fire had reached the the ceiling and communicated with the operating room above, where the tele- graph instruments were located. Here also were the offices and operating room of the Associated Press. This was soon enveloped in flames.
 Upon the floor above this was the restaurant of the Western Union Tele- graph company. Two women and four men were in the restaurant. The first they knew of their peril was when they saw the smoke and moment later a sea of flame shot up the we'll of the dumb waiter. They were terribly frightened and rushed for the stairway, only to be met by dense volumes of flame and smoke. They retreated wild with terror and sought for means of escape. Some one thought of the scuttle, a ladder was found and all safely reached the roof. One woman was with difficulty re- strained from throwing herself to cer- tain death to the pavement 100 feet below.
 At this time the flames burst from all the windows and shot up to the caves. The crowds on the street encouraged the men and women on the roof and the firemen were making desperate efforts to reach them. The building was far higher than any other in the neighbor- hood, and the firemen had no ladders long enough to reach the roof. From the roof of the building at No Dey street. the longest ladder that could be found was placed against the side of the building, but groan of horror went up when it was found that the ladder was fully fifty feet too short. A rope was thrown to the roof and was caught by one of the women and fastened to a chimney. At the peril of his life fire man succeeded in climbing hand over hand to the roof and lowered the four men and two women to safety, while the crowds gave vent to their feelings by wildly cheering. Hardly had they left the roof when the flames broke through the towers and the whole building was a seething mass of fire.
 At 10 o'clock large part of the fire department of the city were on the scene, trying to prevent the fire from spreading to adjoining property.
 The origin of the fire is unknown but it is supposed to have been caused by the crossing of electric light and tele- graph wires. Over 700 people were em- ployed in the building, but most of them had not reached work when the fire broke out. Had the fire occurred later in the day the loss of life would have been terrible. All the telegraph wires are down and the business of the Vest ern union company will suffer greatly.
 The fire was completely extinguished at II o'clock. Although no lives were lost it was one of the most serious coDfla- grations the city has had in years. The loss is estimated at S1, ,500, 0,00O.
 Besides the Western Union and Asso- ciated Press offices, Jay Gould, the Pacific Railway company and many lawyers had their offices in the building, and many valuable documents were destroyed.
 The Western Union company and Associated Press have secured tempo rary quarters in Jersey City. Over 300 operators are thrown out of employ ment.