The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-08
PANIC IN 4 4HNHMHNq
An Early Morning Alarm o.
Fire-Gallant Rescue
Work.

NEW YORK, Nov. s. 1S94-A fire that
made lots of smoke and occasioned com
siderable excitement broke out at eight
O'Clock this morning in the big double
tenement house, 215. 2l7 and 219 Woostei
street.
The house is five story brick struc,
ture, the ground floors being occupied as
stores and the upper stories by small
families.
AT 217 Giovanni Giovanni kept a hard,
ware, paint ard oil store. He occupied
the rear as living apartments with his
wife and three small children. Shortly
before eight this morning Mrs. Giovanni
smelled smoke and went down into tho
cellar to investigate. She discovered ne
blaze, but saw smoke curling around this
floor overhead. In the meantime he1
husband saw smoke issuing from this
eellarway in front of 219. and calling his
wife upstairs ran around to South Fifth
avenue and Third street and turned in
an alarm.
AROUSED FROM SLEEP.
During her husbands absence Mrs
GIOVANNI aroused the tenants, many OF
whom were still asleep in their beds
Instantly the cry of fire rang through
the hallways, there was an excited rush
for the fire escapes, and wnen the fire.
with women and children.
The fire, 1t was finally discovered, was
in a cellar compartment filed with 4
quantity of old bedding and other int
f1ammable material. Clouds of smoke
curled up through the cracks and door,
ways, filing the two upper halls, making
It appear as if the fire was on the street
hoor Some OF the tenants or the up,
per floors escaped through the scuttle
holes and fed over the roofs TO the ado
joining house.
TOiraaflxr oNray. No or Ijr,o,5 T. n
ell, Well-to-do Italian painter, with
his wife and three-year-old daughter Les
ona. The whole family were huddled to-
| gether when Roundsnan Pfachler of tha
| Mercer street station broke IN the door,
He tried to coax them TO go downstairs
With him, but they refused.
He finally grabbed Bancil by the arms
| and fairly dragged him to the street
| Then a ladder was run up and Fire.
| man John Murphy of Hook and Ladder
| Truck u carried the mother and child
| down in his arms
THoUGHT THEY WERE DOOMED.
| When the tenants above saw the fires
man carrying Mrs. Bancil down, they
| seemed TO imagine that they were DOOM
! ed. Escape by the Railways, they
| thought. must have been cut of, and
| these who had nerve enough left be-
| gan scrambing down the shay fire.
escape.
Mrs. Maggie Reynolds, the wfN of
| Michael Reynolds, a saloon keeper at
| Fourth and Jones streets. stood in the
! window screaming for help. She had
! her three-year-old child in her arms,
| and the crowds that blocked the street
| thought the woman might drop it to
| the street. Fireman Murray seemed to
| entertain the same fear, for without
{, delay he hurried up the ladder to the
| first fire-escape landing and brought
/ the child down. The mother followed
| to the landing and was carried down by
| another fireman of Truck Y.
Other children scrambled down to the
| first landing and were carried down the
| ladder to the street. All of the people
| who availed themselves of the assistance
| of the i1remen TO escape were very much
| frightened, but not at all injured.
| The crowds cheered Fireman Murray,
| and the noise attracted new additions
| until the block was jammed, the police
under Captain Eakins finding great diff
! ficulty in clearing the way for the fire.
( men.
The damage to the building will not
! exceed $500 Giovaninfs stock was dam
| aged about the same amount, and the
| fancy goods store of John Morello, next
| door, was damaged about $50 worth.
| The origin of the fire is unknown.