New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-04-29
TWO WOMEN DIE IN FLAMES.
ANOTHER FATAL IENEMENT-HOUSE flkE.
rxc1r1YG REsCUEs FROM THE CAYUGA FLATS
EXPLODING NAPHrHA STARTS THE
DEADLY WORK.


Added 10 the two deaths must be counted more or
less serious injury 10 three more people, whlle
several of the tenants barely escaped with their
lives. The burned building is one Of those known
as the Cayuga Flats and numbered l09-lll West
Thirty-third-st The two buildings each shelter
about twenty families, and are entirely dlNloed
by a thick solid stone partition wall On 'he
fourth floor is an iron balcony running from ehd
10 end of the fats but the front OF the hous' ls
otherwise unprovided with anything IN TIE shape
Of a flrc-escape In the rear Of the house, now
ever. ESCAPES extending the whole length OF the
buildings were provided to every floor. Between
the two houses. and common 10 both, was pls
airshaft Outside the windows Of the shatt was
a small iron balcony connecting the two houses
and forming ready means of escape III case oi
fire On each of the five floors OF NO. 1oS were
five families
II was lust five minutes after Il o'clock when
Dr James F. Briggs who had his Office and apart
ments in the front of the first floor on the west
side of the house. started to clean an old couch
With can full of naphtha next his elbow ana
n lighted candle about foot away from the can
he began vigorously TO work. He was rubbing
away when a glowing white light as OF Ish'-
ming flashed into his eyes and dazed and blinded
him, and the next thing he knew he was lying ID
corner of the ROOM now ahlaze. The force oil
the explosion had been strong enough to hioW
open the door of his room and instantly
the corridor and the stairways Of the
house were filed with thick, binding
smoke. which mounted the well staircase and air
shaft ard filled the whole house Out of his r'oIn'
now burning fercey the physician staggered
blindly cropping his way mp the staircase unNl nc
fell in a dead faint on the first landing.
Rovlan iaDitOr n fhp buildings was NJ
work in No lO9 when he heard loud report
His own family were in the burning house. ana
bareheadcd. he rushed into the hallway ond up
the stairs lust as a sheet of fame shot ont OF
DR. Bricgs's room across The hall and cut OF all
means Of escape by the street door The names,
now racing upward through the arshaft 9rG the
we'll of the stairway hunted ROylan as he dartcd
up the stairs, almost falling over the hudtile1
form of DR. BriegS. The janitor shouted to the
screaming and blinded crowd of women to run for
their lives 10 tho roof. Driving the women
before him like a fock Of sheep, Boylan, for
getful for the moment of his own wife and little
ones forced them upward and out through the
wide doorway which opened on the roof
Among the tenants in the house was William
Alexander, porter for Stebbins x Co., shipping
commission merchants, OF No. 32 Readest with
him lived his wife. to whom he had been married
l1lpeQ months, IlLdDtlU J'iI'N, d S4S'l VI -''''
Alexander, who with her husband boarded in the
fiat, and male lodger. Jones, a house painter
was away at Greenpoint. Alexander
had left the fat at o'clock. His wife,
who was about to become mother,
was sloeping when the report of the ex-
ploxon sounded through the house and half-awoke
and choking with the fumes OF the SNAKE, she
staggered from her bed out 10 the landing and
tried to mount the stairs, crying for her sister,
whom she had left behind her in the bedroom.
This way" cried Boylan coming behind her
and pushing her forward. Then thick gush
Of smoke came and shut her out from his sight
That was the last seen of her alive.
Down on the first floor. Fireman lanlon. of Hook
and Ladder Company No. II. which had come in
response to the third alarm sent out by Chcf Bon
ner. had seen DR. Brags lying insensible on the
landing lie dashed through the fire up the stars
and took DR.. Briggs in his arms. Then, with the
flames scorching his cheek, and the smoke hiIln2
his eyes, nose, ears and throat, he fought his way
down n the door and into the street and laid his
burden on the sidewalk. He had saved Dr
Brjoes from death but tho doctor WAS 50 terribly
burned about the head, face arms and hands, his
hair and eyebrows being singed oil, that he Will be
,hsGgnred for tbc rest Of his life. IIanlon was
severely burned.
Of Champ,qne" Company, who had seen the eA-
nlosion from the stage-door Of the Standard Inca
IRE soon staggered out the stoop bearing IN i'ih
orns a woman and little child When ne hai
found her the woman, who is employed at Iupef .
Nuseuus was lost in the smoke and bhndly "dlNinS
round and round in circle Cfouch'u !"
q corner of the hallway behind the staiie'
and gibbering at the sheet oi nam
which seemed TO shut them ont from
life we're Richard Newell 4 feeble old man, anu H'9
donobter The frenen saw them and played
on the flames and on them WIFI "
hose. while two or three Others ol the coiP'HS
rushed in and dragged them into the street. u"-
hurt. but half dead with fright. AT "'h'o"
of the third floor stood an ola woman mo'ni'e
with fear and piteously wrnging her hanGe' lWo
firemcn dragged her through the WINDOW oi '"'
hnr,ing room and carried her safely down to
,be street She was Mrs. Catherine Moore scNehlS-
three wears old She was severely burned about
,he face and head. and, with Or. Briggs, she was
taken in an ambulance to the NewA ork Hospital
William O'Rrien and Joseph Levy, two clerks. en-
Moved in Barney Michael-s poolroom, which faces
rhe fatbouse rushed into the house IN company
with Mccormick. Two children were irving to
come down the stairs from the third floor. o Brien
took one, while Levy seized th other. and then
with the children in their arms, the TWO ran
back into the street
Following the third alarm. special calls had been
sent olS all over the city, ana more than dozen
engines responded. But the absence Of iic-cscapcs
in The front Of the building hampcred the efforts
OF the firemen and II WAS not until the names
had burst through tAe roof, which the lreineh
were irving to smash from above that they were
able 10 pour big stream of water into the
omen space and finally finish it,
The fire was all ont anG the hremen. believing
that every one had escaped were going through
Tho bouse when "a cry from OF them caused
a rush 70 the fourth floor. There in corner Of
the landing lay all that was left of what had
onco beon woman The blackened trunk, charrcd
% y Shameless mass had seemingly lost all vestige
of identity One of the fremen had made his
way into the fiat occupied by the Alexanders ana
n moment later his voice heard calling to
his comrades. By the side of bed was the body
~ another woman. whose head had been charred
vi "Nu ~ aar,hIance of humanity The bodies