The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-26
FLED FROM FIRE. IN FRIGHT.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM LOSS OF
LIFE IN NEW YORK.

tenants Forced to Evacuate a Hos
pitaI and Tenement HOuse-Thc
sOhmer Piano Warehouse, the New
York PoIyclinic Hospital, the East
River Hotel and a Tenement House
the Buildings Burned-The Total
Loss Estimated at Upwards of
SI,OOO,OOO.
New York, Dec. 25.--An early Christmas
morning fire on East Thrty-third street
destroyed property valued at nearly
million dollars and rendered 100 people
homeless. Four buildings, including Soh-
mer piano warehouse and the New York
Polytechnic Hospital were destroyed.
The destroyed building also include a
large five-story brick tenement at 209 East
Thirty-third street and a large ive-story
brick factory building. The piano ware
house occupied fourth of the block and
the Polytechnic was a factory building with
a front of fifty feet on East Thlrty-third
street.
The fire began at'7:O5 o'clock on the sec
ond floor of the Pinares snuff factory, at
211 East Thirty-fourth street.
When the first engines arrived on the
scene the fire had already communicated
east. Several large streams of water We're
roured in the burning building, but with
ont apparent effect and third and fourth
alarms for engines were sent in.
The police, under Sergt. Pagan aroused
the sleeping tenants of the building on the
west of the burning factory.
There was a panic when the tenants
found smoke pouring in their rooms, and
IN the excitement and decentralization
which followed several of the tenants es.
eaped narrowly with their lives.
with the aid of the police, eighteen fam
lies. consisting of seventy-ftve people were
dragged and carried from the building
Several girls, only partially dressed, open
ed the windows of their rooms on the fifth
floor and stepped on the fire escape In
front of the building. One of them was
about to lump to the street when a police
man. who had entered the room, dragged
her back and carried her to the street.
At o'clock the piano warehouse owned
bv Sebastian Sohmer was on IRE from
cellar to roof. Fifteen minutes later the
roof fell in.
The fire had then assumed such enor-
nous proportions that the hospital in the
rear of the warehouse and fronting on
Thirty-fourth street was in imminent dan
ger. There were ffty-eight patients in the
building, and when they were aroused
there was another panic. Patients whose
condition had been very serious leaped
from their beds and ran towards the stairs;
The nurses and emp1oyes OF the hospltal
assured them that there was no danger
and the panic was temporarily quelled.
one by one the patients were ca carried rsd
been removed to nearby Motel, Where
they were placed in beds.
The flames communicated with the roof
Of the hospital at $3.50 O'Clock, and in sew
eral minutes the upper floor was belching
forth huge waves of smoke and fire. The
fireInen who were inside the building were
ordered to leave the structure and several
lines of hose poured water on 1t from the
elevated railroad tracks on Thirty-fourth
street.
The tenement house at 200, from which
the tenants had been rescued by the po-
lcemen, had been considered safe by the
frmen until 1896 O'Clock. when a strong
wind blew the flames over it. In a short
time the roof of the building caught from
the heat of the factory fires, and ten min
Several streams of water had no appar-
ent effect, and in a short time the roof
fell in.
The front wall of the fifth floor follow
ed a short time afterward and then the
tremen turned their attention to the ten
ement adjoining on the west. The roof of
the building al No 2i1 fell in at S;45 o oclock
and carried with ii to the ground the four
floors. The piano warehouse wall, which
was almost SOll0 ana nearly 2O0 leeL IOuS
and sixty feet high, collapsed shortly af-
terward. A part of 1t fell on the roof of
the East River hotel at No. 223, and dam
aged the building to a great extent. The
firemen poured several streams of water
on the hotel, but fire started IN the rear
of the top floor shortly after the wall fell
The fire in the factory, warehouse and
tenement were under control at 10 o'clock,
put only after eyerything IN them had
been destroyed. Nothing remained of the
three buildings except parts OF the outer
walls and a blazing mass of lumber and
woodwork in the interior.
The building in which the fire started
was occupied on the first. second and third
floors. by j. r. Kaldenburger, manu-
facturer OF pipes and smokers materials.
Pinares' snuff factory occupied a part
Of the second floor, and the fourth and
fifth floors of the building. The loss to
the snuff manufacturer will be not less
than $4,000. The loss to the building viii
amount to nearly $4,000, partly covered
by insurance.
The Sohmer piano warehouse Is total
loss. The loss TO Sohmer, in stock and
machinery will reach 100000, or 100000.
And the loss on the building is 100000.
The tenement at 9D9 East Thrty-third
street was damaged to the extent OF No,-
600. The damage done TO the furniture
ana personal property of the tenants Is
several thousand dollars.
The damage done to the Polytechnic hos
pital will amount TO at least $4,000. There
were thirty children among the patients,
ana all OF them were carried out In the
arms of firemen.
The fires in an the buildings were under
control at II o'clock. Besides rendering
homeless hundred people, the fire has
thrown out of work nearly 500 employees
or the factories and the hospital.
The New York Polytechnic Is a private
institution. 1t was organized as a medi-
cal college and hospital about fifteen
years ago.
Several persons we're slightly injured
during the progress Of the fire.
-s-o-e-
CHURCH AND CLUB ABLAZE.