The evening world., 1894-10-01
FIREMEN IN DANGER.
A Burning Factory Fell Apart
While They Were at Work.
Men Inside the Building Warned in
the Nick OF Time.
Flames Confined Amid Dangerous
Surroundings-Loss $4,000.

The factory of Jonas Naumburg cutter
of hatters' fur, in the double six-story
brick building $40 and 5l2 West Thirty
fourth street, was destroyed by fire this
morning. The loss is about $4,000.
The flames came suddenly, and they
were beyond control before the first
alarm had been sent out. 1t was about
4 o'clock this morning that private
Waterman on the block noticed a bright
light shining from the fur factory on the
third floor. The flames suddenly burst
through the windows. Murphy, the
Waterman, summoned Policeman Smith,
who was a block away, and the latter
turned in an alarm.
Engine Company "a was the first on
the scene. When the engine arrived the
place was on fire from cellar to roof,
and the flames had burst through a
dozen windows. Chief Bonner at once
ordered out a third alarm
Next to the building on the west was
q vacant lot. Two streams were turned
on from this side, and one from the
front of the house.
Twenty minutes after the discovery
of the fire, there was a warning cry
from Chief Bonner, and the men who
were working in the building and on the
ladder in front, were ordered to the
street, as the walls threatened to fall.
The order was not given minute too
soon. The men had not yet left the
building when there came groan of
cracking walls, and many tons of brick
Of flame leaped into the air. In the
dust of the falling bricks and flying tim
bers, 1t was soon known that the last
man had left the building as the wall
<nn hi
The burning building had split in two;
half of the front wall, and all of that
on the west side had gone down, and
the, flames were licking up what re-
on the north side of the factory is an
apartment-house. Three families who
occupied it We're aroused by cries and
rushed out, to find the halls filled with
smoke. All got out in safety.
Back of the building, in Thirty-thrd
street, is the four-story factory of the
the lnseed-oil factory of Decker &
Co. Both these places are heavily
stocked with lard and oils. The build
ings are separated from the fur factory
by yard of twenty feet. Chief JAG
quel had three streams on the rear of
these buildings early.
Beyond the oil factories in Thirty
third street and close to the fire are
three tenement-houses called the Bar
racks. There was small panic in
these houses.
Inc tenants woke to find the rooms
lighted with the glare of the flames
Soon the halls were filled with scream
Ing women and children, while the men
were, doing all in their power to get
the, household goods out of the fires
path
The flames raced though what was
LETT of the factory after half of it had
fallen. The, place was. stocked with
bundles of furs, which burned flercely
ana gave out great light and heat. 1t
may have been in one of these bundles
or furs that the fire started from
spontaneous combustion or 1t may have
started in the drying on the first
hoor. In the rest of the building there
Is machinery for cutting up the skins,
ana skins in the various stages of com
pletion for the making of hats and caps.
me IRE was confined to the factory,
out 1t required the most energetic work
from the members of the twelve com
panies that had been called out
Besides being the largest concern of
me KIND in the country this Is the busy
season in the business, and the stock
mat was in the building this morning is
the heaviest that has been carried for
years past. There have been three fires
IN the building before during the past
Two years, but none OF them caused more
than nominal damages
MT Naumburg, one of the firm, said this
morning that he would estimate the less
on the stock at $55 900, and that on the
building at $4,000. The building was a
1iimsy affair, that has stood there these
forty years. 1t was erected as a dwell
mg-house, turned into a tenement, and
afterwards for many years occupied as
piano factory. The loss is fully COW
cred by insurance,