The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-02-25
SEVEN VICTIMS OF A FIRE
A FEARFUL CASUALTY IN A BAL
TlMORE HOME.
Six People Injured in Escaping from
the Burning Armiger
Residence.

were asphyxiated, one fatally hurt by
jumping from window, and five
athers more or less injured by a fire
in the residence of James r. Armiger,
a prominent jeweler, at 1906 Charles
street yesterday morning.
The house in which the holocaust oc-
CURED is one of a row of granite front
residences belonging to the A. S. Abel
estate, on Charles street, just north of
Lafaytte avenue. it is four stories in
height, and at the time of the fire was
filed with costly furniture and much
rare bric-a-brac, plate, and unique
jewelry of which Armiger was an en-
thusiastic collector. In the house
were just thirteen persons. OF these
ten were members of the Armiger
household, two were servants, and the
other, Mr.. Manuel was guest who had
been visiting the Armiger family for
the past two or three days.
All these people were i'm their bed
rooms, on the upper floors, some OF
| them being partially dressed, when
at fifteen minutes after o'clock yes
terday morning fire was discovered
issuing from a partition in the cellar.
1t had ignited from an oyerheated
| furnace hUe, and was first seen by
Louis Whiting, the colored mau-of-all-
work, who was at the time cleaning
the front steps. Whiting ran to the
adjacent corner and gave the alarm TO
policeman and hurrying back TO the
house, entered the front door, closed
it behind him. and ascended to the
| second floor, where Mr.. and Mrs. Ar
niger had their bed rooms.
The house was by this time filed
| with dense, sitting smoke, and when
| the negro and Mrs. Armiger attempted
to descend, they found it impossible.
Whiting aided Mrs. Armiger to the
| front window, and helped her TO reach
small balcony in front, upon which
he placed her, and returned to the
aid of Mr.. Armiger. He found the latter
had gone, and came back to Mrs. Ar
niger, who, clad in nothing but her
night clothes, was shivering on the
narrow balcony and shrieking in
agonized tones for help.
Half dozen men who were passing
hastened to the power house of the
Charles street cable line, a block below,
and procured a short ladder. When
they returned, they found Deputy Fire
Chief McAfee, a noted life-saver, who
quickly mounted the ladder. Tt was
not long enough, but by standing on
the uppermost round he could reach
the frightened woman. AS he attempt
ed to lift her from the balcony, her
scanty clothing caught an obstruction,
and she fell forward with her whole
weight upon the outstretched arm of
the fireman.
just then the ladder slipped, and
every one below expected to see both
the rescuer and the woman he was
trying to save dashed to death on the
pavement below. BY tremendous eff
fort, however, McAfee steadied him
low shouted to her not to jump, but
one hand grasped the balcony with
the other. Hanging thus, he slowly re-
placed the ladder with his feet and
brought the now fainting woman down
in safety.
In the meantime, the other inmates
of the front rooms were crowding to
the windows, making the most pite-
Gus appeals for help. The people be-
low shouted TO her not to jun, but
Alice Williams disregarded their warn
ings, and with an appealing shrek,
sprang from the fourth story window
and struck the stone steps full upon
her forehead, featuring her skull, from
which she to-day died.
driven back.
In the rear room on the second floor
were eleanor and Virginia, the unmar-
ried daughters of Mrs. Armiger. They
were partially dressed, but so rapid
was the spread of the flames that they
had no time to escape by the stairway.
4,
of the rear window and cried for help
A neighbor came to their aid and un-
der his cool-headed instructions, Miss
Virginia lowered her younger sister
with a sheet, and, throwing a mattress
out of the window, leaped to the yard
below.
BY this time the firemen had reach
ed the scene, and in a twinkling had
reared long ladders up to the windows
both front and rear. Up these they
swarmed, and in a few minutes the re-
naming inmates of the doomed house
were being carried out. On the stair
way leading from the second to the
third floor was found the body of Mr..
Armiger, with that of his little grand
son, Richard Riley, clasped tightly in
his arms showing that the old man
had made a gallant attempt to rescue
the boy at the cost of his own life. In
the front room on the third floor was
found the corpse of Mr.. Manuel. He,
too, had the body of child ia his arms,
telling another story of unrequited
heroism.
In the rear room, on the third floor,
lying on the bed, the firemen found the
dead body of Mr. Riley. BY his side lay
his wife, breathing family She was
hurried into the open air in time to save
her life, and, though she is badly burn
ed about the face and arms and half
crazed by her terrible loss, she will re-
cover. In another room were the
bodies Of Mrs. Champlin and her three
year-old son, while upon the upper
floor the fremen found Ida Whiting,
the colored servant, unconscious from
smoke, but not seriously hurt.
The body Of Horace Manuel, the