Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-11-09
SMOHHERED TO DEATH.
A FATAL TENEMENT FIRE
IN NEW YORK CITY.

Seven Persons Suffocaiej and an
Eighth MortalIy Burned-The De-
structiOn Caused by an Incen-
diary-Scores Rescued by Heroes
-Panic-Stricken Tenants.
Seven people were smothered to death By
smoke in a tenement house fire at 216 West
Thirty-second street, New York City. At
woman jumped from a third-story win
dow and was fatally injured. The
fire came suddenly and cut of
all escape by tho stairways. In
the intense excitement all who were
aroused looked only TO their own safety and
plunged down the fire escapes. Those who
were not awakened We're smOthered as they
slept. The dead are George Friedman. four
years Loli Friedman. three years Annie
Appleblatt twenty-two years Lena Mitchell,
tWenty-four years Mrs. Margaret Ktllian,
seventy years Jacob KilIian, her son, forty
years George Lovey, Mrs. KilliaL's grand
son. twenty years.
Lena Friedman. mother Of the dead chill
dren, jumped from the third-story rear win
dow She was badly crushed and mangled,
being fatally injured.
Just what caused the fire to start up 50
suddenly at a time when the tenants OF tho
house were all asleep is not positively
known. although Fire Marshal MitcheI's as
SlSLdul ueclHr6S luaC C was OF lnc6QDIHFN
origin. The house contained seven families,
two on each floor except the top story.
where the janitress, Mrs. Eberwein, lived
alone. In all there were probably forty per-
sons asleep in the house whom the fire start
ed in the cellar and prompt rescue alone
saved them from death.
The smoke penetrated the rooms on every
floor in less than five minutes after the
flames began to climb roofward, and in two
minutes after Policeman Powers reached the
house the little narrow fire escape, that ran
like a slender trellis up tho front of the
house, was swarming with half cad figures
OF men, women and children, If craZad
with fear. Volumes of smoke now rolled
from the front windows, and the cries OF the
people anxious for safety combined with the
noise of arriving fire engines and the shouts
of the people i'll the street caused a cOnfu-
sion of sounds indescribable.
The flames had not gained access to any
OF the front rooms, but the smoke was
simply sitting. Standing on dry goods
box, Policeman Powers received the fear
stricken tenants and passed them down
from the first floor escape to Policemen
Hahn and Donovan.
All of those in the front of the house es-
capped, but while they were being rescued a
tragedy was being enacted in the rear apart
ments on the second floor, where Nathan
Friedman, poor furrier, was making a mad
fight to save his family and himself from
death
He awoke to find his bed room full of
Smoke, and picking up Esther. tho young
est of the three children a babe Of four
months. Friedman made his way to the
hall door. The flames had reached that
floor, and the fire drove him bliStered and
fainting from the intense heat to the
kitchen. He aroused his wife and babe
her follow him, but the woman became
hysterical, and did not obey. Friedman
made his way to a corner window, near
i0lN- -r1po l1,EI. i
yard to the root He rapidly decended this
ladder, expecting that his wife would fol-
low, but hardly had he reached the ground
when he heard her screams.
The poor man turned around just in
time to see the form of his wife shoot
downward from a window CT the kitchen.
Mrs. Friedman struck the bottom of the
cellar area, just outside of the point
where the fire is supposed to have started.
Strange to say. she had sustained no
broken bones, and she ran up the area
stairs to the rear of the yard. Her clothing,
however was ablaze, and before it could
be extinguished the poor woman was fatally
burned. AS TO Friedman, he handed his
infant daughter, the only one Of the family
save himself who 0scG ped unscratched,
through the window Of an adjacent house,
and then started back to get his two other
children.
1t was too late, the dense smoke would not
permit it, and in agony of spirit the half
cr2zed husband helped his suffering wife into
nearby house, where oil was appliedto her
burns. Her heart-rending cries for her chill
dren were pitiful. She was removed 10
Roosevelt Hospital, and there swathed in
oil-soaked bandages..
Meantime the engines had been f1ooiing
the house with water under Deputy Chief
PurrOy's direction and hook and ladder
trucks had lined the front of the building
with scaling ladders and in an hours time
the last spark had been extingutshed and the
house cleared of smoke.
The two Friedman children, George and
Levy, were found lying dead side by side in
their little bed just as they had fallen asleep
the night before. Not hair of their heads
had been singed, and none of the bodies had
been touched by the flames. In a bedroom
in the Friedman apartment were the bod
les of Lena Mitchell, cousin of Mrs. Fried
man, and Of Annie ApplebIatt, who
boarded with the family. Neither of the
girls had moved apparently, and their faces
looked peaceful enough Death had evi-
IDENTIFY come to them painlessly
On the floor aboyr. the destroyer had not
Deen received so quietly. Jacob Killian was
lying doubled up alongside of his bed, rs if
he had made an effort to crawl to a window
and been overcome in the act. George
Lovey had also managed to get out of bed,
and his body was found on the floor. Aged
Mrs. Killian had died Just as she slept, and
peaceful smile rested on the furro wed face.