The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-12-26
S1,OOO,O0O FIRE IN NEW YORK
ONE HUNDRED FAMILIES REM
DERED HOMELESS.

Escapes from Death.
New York, Dec. 25.-Fire broke out
here this morning on East Thirty-third
street and destroyed Sebastian Soh-
mers piano warehouse, the New York
Polytechnic hospital, a large five story
brick tenement at 2O9 East Thirty-third
street, and large five story factory
building. One hundred people We're
rendered homeless and the loss is near
ly 81, 100000 ..
The piano warehouse occupied a
fourth of the block, and the Polytechnic
was a four story building with front
of fifty feet on East Thirty-Fourth
street.
The fire began at 7:05 o'clock on the
second floor of Pinare's snuff factory
at 211 East Thirty-third street.
When the first engines arrived the
fire had already communicated with
the piano warehouse adjoining on the
east side. Several large streams of
water We're poured into the burning
building, but without apparent effect,
and third and fourth alarms for en-
gines We're sent in.
The police aroused the sleeping ten
ants 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 demoraliza-
ton which followed the cry of fire.
several of the tenants escaped narrow
ly with their lives Eighteen families,
consisting of seventy-five people, were
dragged and carried from the building.
Several girls only partially dressed
opened 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 jump to the street
when policeman, who had entered the
room, drew her back and carried her
to the street.
The tenants, with their children, We're
taken to hotel at the corner of Third
avenue and Thirty third street, where
they bewailed the loss of their property.
At o'clock the piano warehouse was
on fire from cellar to roof, and fifteen
minutes later the roof fell in. tThe
fire had by that time assumed such
enormous proportions that the hospital
in the rear of the warehouse and front
ing on Thirty-fourtn street was in i'm
minent danger.
Patients whose condition had been
very serious leaped from their beds
and ran towards the stairs, The
nurses and employees of the hospital as
sured them that there was no danger
and the panic was only temporarily. One
by one the patients were carried from
the building until all of them had been
removed Hastily improvised stretch
ers bore the patients to a nearby ho-
tel, where they We're placed in beds.
An attendant in the hospital was
overcome by the smoke, but soon re-
covered.
The flames communicated with the
roof of the hospital at $3.50, and in sew
eral minutes the upper floor was belch-
ing forth huge waves of smoke and fire.
The firemen who were inside the
building We're ordered to leave the
structure, and several lines of hose
poured water on it from the elevator
| L
The tenement house at 209 from
which the tenants had been rescued
by the policemen, had been considered
safe by the firemen until S:3S when a
strong wind blew the flames over it.
In a short time the roof caught the
heat of the factory fire, and ten min
utes afterward the interior was ablaze.
Several streams of water had no ap-
parent effect and in a short time the
roof fell in with deafening roar.
| The front wall of the fifth floor fol-
lowed a short time afterward, and then
the firemen turned their attention to
! the tenement adjourning on the west.
! The roof of the building at 211 fell in
at S:45 and carried with it to the
ground the four floors. The piano
warehouse wall, which was almost SOL
id and nearly two hundred feet long
and sixty feet high, collapsed shortly
afterwards: A part of it fell on the
roof of the East River hotel at 223 and
damaged the building to a great ex-
tent. The firemen poured several
! streams of water on the hotel, but
/ fire started in the rear of the tor
| floor shortly after the wall fell upon it
The fires in the factory, warehouse and
tenement were under control at ten
o'clock, but only after everything in
them had been destroyed. Nothing re-
| mained 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. f. Kaldenberg, a
manufacturer of pipes and smokers
materials. Kaldenberg's loss is about
| $751;
Pinare's 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 no less
| than $4,000, and may reach twice that
| amount. The loss to the building will
amount to nearly 100000; partly COW
cred by insurance.
The Sohmer piano warehouse is a. to-
| tai loss. The building was owned by
a company of which Senator Clarence
Lexow is the receiver
The loss to Sohmer in stock and ma
| chinery will reach 100000, with the
| prospect that when account of the
| stock which was in it is taken it will
reach 100000 more.
The building was assessed at $780,
900, but was valued at nearly twice thai
| amount.