Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-02-24
TERRIBLE CALAMITY.

The home of Mr. James B. Armiger,
1906 north Charles street, Baltimore,
was visited by an awful calamity yes
ter,lay morning about o'clock. An
overheated furnace set fire to wood.
en- partition, and seven lives were ush'
cred into eternity by sufocation. -Four
others were badly injured. 1t was one
of the most horrible occurrences the
city has ever known. Five persons es-
capcd safely from the building. Those
who were unable to escape from the
death trap were either in bed or in the
act of or ,ssing. The dead are Mr..
James X. Armiger, Mr.. William B.
Riley, Richard Riley, Mrs. Marion
Chamblin, James Chamblin, and Mr..
Horace Manuel, the latter of New
York. The injured are Mrs. ]. X.
Armiger, Mrs. w. Il. Riley, Alice Will
iams and May White, the last two be-
ing colored domestics. Those who es-
cared were Misses Virginia and clean
or Armiger, and a colored waitress and
colored cook. Mr.. Armiger was the
head of the we'll known jewelry house
of James R. Armiger, and both he and
his family were well known in this city.
where they frequently visited.
A large crowd was before the burn
ing building almost in moment after
the alarm was given and, looking up at
the windows, the hundreds who con-
eregated below saw the occupants of
the house aroused from their slumber
appear one after the other at the win
dows in their night robes. Within a
few moments the entire house was en-
yeloped in the densest smoke.
The servants on the fourth floor
rushed down stairs, but could get no
lower than the second story, where
thew were driven into the sleeping
rooms of the other inmates of the
house. With closed doors behind
them, to keep out the smoke, the SER
wants, too, rushed to the windows.
crying pi.eously for help. There were
then penned up in the building four
teen persons, crying or shrieking for as
ssistance whereby to get out of the
death trap.
AS soon as the fremen arrived nets
were stretched beneath the windows
and the fremen called to the terror
stricken persons at the windows to
Jump. The crowd in the street, not
realizing the extent of the fire and
smoke within the house, yelled, Don't
iumpm The bewildered inmates held
hack, and some of them disappeared
from the windows. Apparently they
went back for clothing, or perhaps for
some valuable possession. 1t was ia.
tai, move, and in most instances cost a
life.
The fremen had by this time thrown
up ladders in front of the house and
Chief McAfee climbed up to the second
story window, where Mrs. Armiger was
crying for help. The ladder did not
quite reach the window and there was
the widest excitement in the crowd be-
low as McAfee stood on the upper round
of the ladder and grasped the window
sill for support. He encouraged Mrs.
Armiger to swing herself out of the
window. AS the chief grasped her with
one arm he steadied himself with the
other and had taken one step down the
ladder when it slipped, and McAfee,
with the woman in one arm and the
other holding to the frame, dangled in
the air. A cry of horror went up from
the crowd as it saw the peril of the dar-
ing fireman and his human burden. For
tunately for them, McAfee caught the
top round of the ladder on his toe, and |
pulling it back into position, released his
hold upon the window and quickly de-
scended with the woman to the sidewalk. A |
cheer went up as the rescued and rescuer |
reached terra firma.
Meanwhile, there appeared at the third. |!
story window Mr.. Ri'ey, Mrs. Riley and three
children. The crowd calle1 to them not to |
Jump and they Went back. As it turned out |
Mr.. Riley's intention was t, let his |
family to the ground BIS lifeline Tina. |
was, however, however, the last seen of Mr.
Riley and his children alive Mrs. Riley was
taken from the window by 1iremsu aud
saved. Alice Matthews jumped from the
ryindoW and yyaS fatal1 q iuiirrx6 n /