The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-02-04
DID NOT WAIT TO DRESS
Gilsey House Guests Panic
Strieken-Far More Smoke
Than Fire.

NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 1S96.-A fire which
did about $500 damage and which began
in the laundry of the Gisey House at
Twenty-ninth street and Broadway early
this morning caused little fame. but
enough smoke to render number of the
guests panic-stricken. The Railways, ele-
vator and lightshaft. lobby and stair
ways were filled with smoke black and
dense and hither and thither through it
ran men. women and children. partly
dressed. many of them unable to find a
means of escape until assisted by a cool
male guest or a policeman.
The De Reszkes, Edouard and Jean,
the well-known opera singers. remained
in their rooms and were the only per-
sons in the house. of all the 224 guests
who did not leave their apartments.
The flames began in the drying room
of the laundry which is directly under
the lobby and main hallway of the hotel
about 4:45 o'clock. Engineer John Ward
first noticed the smoke and gave the
alarm. He then went back and opened
one of the doors of the drying room.
Last night several hundred pieces of
clothing were hung up to dry in it and
1t is supposed that an overheated steam
pipe set fire to one of the pieces. When
Ward opened the door the volume of
smoke which rushed out staggered him.
He could not shut the door and with ex-
traordinary rapidity the smoke filled the
main lobby, the stairways and the halls
and up through the elevator shaft and
through the lightshaft. Five minutes af-
ter the door of the drying room was
opened nearly every guest in the hotel
smelled the smoke. Out into the Railways
streamed men and women, few of whom
could find their way as the corridors were
already uense with the smoke. Seven
patrolmen. one on eacn hoor tried to di-
rect the excited guests to the stairways.
| The women ran whichever way they
| heard a commanding male voice direct
them.
The great majority of the guests man
aged to get to the stairs, and after a
sewere and and trying struggle, to the main
| rived in the main hall seven OF them
were in Mysteries and two tainted just
after reaching the dining room where all
| Of the female guests were quartered. The
men remained in the lobby. Five inmates
| took, time to gather their jewels or cloth
| ing before leaving their rooms
| The elevator, which continued to run
! all the time. carried down a number of
guests. These suffered a good deal from
| the smoke which made the shaft one of
| the means of diffusing itself through the
| house.
A dozen men. guests, and score Of do
| are three of these. one on the Broadway
side another on the Twenty-ninth street
| side, and the third on the rear of the
| house. with an exit to Twenty-ninth
street It was a cold descent, as the
| frightened domestics were clad only in
bedroom clothing. and it was showing
hard. All. however. descended in safety
| Half a dozen of the guests ran from the
| top floor to the roof but had to descend
again by the fire escapes.
| 1t was fully half an hour before the
dense smoke cleared away sufficiently for
safe passage to be, made through the
house. Every window m the building
had to be opened to allow the smoke to
escape. After the greater part, OF the
smoke had cleared away maids and
| domestics were running up and down
| stairs bringing wraps for the ladies who
| had hurriedly escaped without any.
Lines of hose were run through the
basement to the drying room and through
| the main hallway 1t was not a difficult
fire to fight. and there was not at any
| time danger of its spreading. 1t was
fairly drowned out and the damage to
property will be about $50. The drying
room was Quilted. Every bit of clothing,
/ in it was lost and the room itself will
| have to be entirely refitted.