The evening world., 1894-03-31
PANIC AT THE SAVOY.
Trifing Fire Sends Guests in q
Hurry to the Street.
Col. Jay Carried from His Sick-Bed
to the Office.
Handsome Ceiling Ruined by .
Flood of Water.

There was quite a panic at the Hotel
Savoy. Fifth avenue and Fifty-ninth
street. at o'clock this morning. 1t was
caused by fire which started In a
closet on the second floor.
From the main hallway on the second
floor. about the centre OF the hotel build
ing' there is narrow. fireproof stairway
leading directly through the building to
the thirteenth floor. 1t Is used as q
private stairway for servants. although
the original idea of It was to have 1t a.
means Of exit In case of fire.
1t was just few minutes after
o'clock when one of the servants who
sleeps on the tenth floor, within few
steps of the door Of the stairway, no.
ticed smoke coming through the key
hole of the door There was light burn
Ing near her bed. The girl had .
toothache and had been unable to sleep.
She got out Of bed and opened the door.
to be met by great cloud Of black
smoke, which rolled up the stairway and
nearly sufrocated her.
She forgot her toothache and remem-
bered the instruction which all the ser
wants had received as to the mode oe
acting In case OF fire. Picking UP an axe
which is part of an automatic fire signal,
she broke the alarm box in her bedroom.
This carried the alarm down to the
office, and the clerk Immediately had
every alarm box In the hotel changing Ike
mad - =
The three hundred and twenty guests
In the hotel with the army of servants
were not long in awaking. Screams OF
women and hoarse cries Of men mingled
with the noise Of alarm bells.
A hotel bootblack and one of the
names, found the source Of the fre IL
door while the others were running
the street.
door, but the knob was red hot.
From almost every window Of the
hotel, women shrieked out wild cries Of
} alarm This attracted the attention Of
alarm from Fifty-afth street and and + Firth II
| avenue. At almost the same moment
Policeman Curren sent In an alarm
from Fifty-eighth street and Madison
! avenue.
! BY the time the engines and truck,
commanded by Chief Shaw, reached the
hotel the bootblack had succeeded In
getting into the burning room. while the
, guest had run another hose down the
/, private stairway and had 1t in good
The fire was almost out, but the fire
men got line OF hose into the building
p nd succeeded In doing great deal more
story was flooded, and the water de-
stroyed the exquisitely frescoed ceiling
, OF the dining-room on the fret floor.
But the extinguishing of the fire did
not end the alarm of the guests. Panic
stricken. despite the efforts of the hotel
stan. headed by Proprietor Judge Henry
Dugro. they ran through the house and
collected In groups on the pavement.
John Jay, the old-time New Yorker,
who has been Ill in the hotel for several
weeks, was carried down from his room
!, and placed on n cot in the office. Gen.
V Hamilton who also makes his home In
the hotel was an early riser, and es-
= capped the general panic.
e The cause OF the fire is not known
/ Last night the Greek Letter Fraternity
', Phi Kapi Psi, held its annual dinner II
the hotel. and II Ia thought that one ol
:, the members may have thrown a Lighted
cigar on the closet floor.
= The damage Is reported by the poles
;. as 5000 to furniture and 500 to build
ing. :
Judge Dugro. however. as he stood ii
e the big dlning-room from the ceiling o
. which water drtpped. said that the dam
!. age would be far above that. The dam
II age by fire, he thought. would not b
more than 800. but as the frescoed cell
Q ing had cost thousands of dollars and
U would, at least in part. have to be re
e placed, an estimate of the damage coull
7 not be given for several days.