The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-10-31
Sl]FT0CATND BY SMOKE
Fatal Fire in a Crowded New York
Tenement House.
SEVEN HUMAN LIVES SACRIFICED.

Tho Fire Came While Seven Families Were
Asleep, and Those who Escaped We're
Awakened by the Shouts of People on
the Street.
NEW YORK, Oct 81.-Seven people were
smothered to death by smoke in o tene-
ment house fire at No. e16 West Thirty
second street early in the morning. The
fire came suddenly and cut off all escape
by the stairways. In the excitement every
body looked only to his or her own safety,
and rushed down the fire escape.
The following persisted in the building,
George Friedman, aged I years; Levy
Friedman, 8; Annie Appleblatt ea; Lena
Mitchell, ~; Mrs. Margaret Killian, 70;
Jacob Killian, her son, 40; George Lovy,
Mrs. Killian's grandson, %.
Lena Friedman, mother Of the dead
children, jumped from the third story
window. She was badly crushed aud
mangled, and will die.
The house is five story brick tenement,
the ground floor being occupied by gro
Gerry and the upper stories being arranged
with front and rear apartments. There
were seven families in the house.. The
only means Of exit for the people is by
means of q stairway, narrow and dark,
which runs directly up through the centre
of the building.
The fire was discovered at o'clock by
passers-by. When a policeman came up
the door of the tenement was open, and on
the in side the fire glowed like torch. He
could see that the stairway was being rap
idly burned away. Still there was not a
sign Of life from the people sleeping in the
house.
To enter the house meant death The
only hope for those within was in arous-
ing the EN- by shouts, in which the police
man was aided by those who had been at
tracted by the fire.
Suddenly to the noise Of the flames as
they burned away the stairway there was
added an awful cry. One Of the tenants in
the upper part Of the house had been
aroused and stood at the window on the
fifth floor. 1t was Mrs. Eberwein, the jan
itress who lived on that floor In a min.
ute there was not n window In the front of
the house that did not contain the wild
and frightened face of some man, woman
or child, each of them appealing for aid.
In the absence Of the firemen, who had
not yet arrived, the spectators were power.
less to assist those in the building further
than to remind them of the fire escapes,
by these first one woman and then others
OIL inc tenants to the number of twenty
reached the ground, descending in the
midst of flame and smoke, before the lad
der trucks arrived
The Friedman children and two board
ers, Annie Appleblatt and Lena Mitchell,
slept in an inner apartment on the third
floor. The fire had not reached them, but
the smoke had filled the room, and at least
three of the occupants had suffocated with.
out having awakened to their peril. George
and Levy Friedman and Lena Mitchell
were still in bed when found, and the
peaceful expression of their faces showed
they had no knowledge Of the death that
came to them SO suddenly. Annie Apple
blatt was lying dead on the floor. Her face
was black. She had her dress and shoes
on. Evidently she had been aroused and
had stopped to don her clothing, and had
died before she finished her task
On the fourth floor were found the re-
naming victims of the fire. Mrs. Killian
and her son were dead in bed, while the
grandson was on the floor, half way to the
rear window.
The fire was extinguished soon after the
hose was turned on, and though the work
OF rescue WAS prosecuted with zeal from
the instant the firemen arrived on the
scene they were too late The property
damage will not exceed 1900.