The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-19
ef Of big tenement on Railroad avenue on

| fire. = Sos "
50 FAR We're sparks carried by the win
na eaae not embers dropped on the sidewall
ana in the street opposite Police Head
away. % @ iii''
a. Efforts I6as Of the flremen to confine tn
ing proved fruitless, and it was Wit
alarm that Chief Conway saw fame
SHOOT out from the top floor of the four
st,ast stuas pTlck tenement house No. s22 Firs
oy eight families. The tenants were mn
| aware that the building was on FIRE an,
i i,au remained in their apartments watch
ing the fremen at work
saan,aa ame neat neat from the Payne buildin.
seemed suddenly to set fire to the bean
OF every floor Of the big tenement. Fira
4n .nen discovered this fact in the nick q
silne, and dashed into the house in two
nee Ior Their lives. Men and women he
came terror stricken Women he.a m,
tS nSysterieal I,,;,s and had to be dragged from
street De9ilo,ns. etba, IN scanty attire in tn,
screaming at the top of their voices As
| surances from firemen that all the chill
oi,fa. orsn would s De saved had no tendency tt
oy eNclted men remaining in their apart.
mentS ana tossing out of windows pieces
OF 9aod dousehold ,l,a5l furniture, which more by
crush the firemen below
Men had to be clubbed before they
would leave the burning tenement.
Roundsman Frey of the Gregory street
STATION was at the head of the rescuina
party and his acts of bravery ELECTED
cheers from the crowd. Alone, he car
rled IN the neighborhood of ten children
from the house. Some of them We're un-
suffocated by smoke. The house seemed
ablaze from top to bottom when Frey
was. was seen to staSger out with middle
aged woman in an unconscious condition
/ nAcTr1 ha1 xrisit tafl
every room in the house and had seen to
IT that not a man, woman or child had
been left behind. Roundsman Frey was
leaning against a post recovering his
breath when flames burst from every
part of the building Tongues of flame
shot high into the air. The heat became
so intense that the firemen were driven
nearly two hundred feet back from the
burning buildings.
Clouds of heavy smoke poured from the
big buildings and twirled by the breezes
settled down over the street, making it
impossible to see across.
Half a dozen old fire fighters finally
seized q hose and by crawling on their
hands and knees got to within twenty
doing excellent work when a cracking
noise alarmed them They deserted their
post and fed toward Coles street. They
escaped just in time. They had barely
reached Coles street when section of the
south wall of the Payne building fell
with terrible crash. The hose the men
Hdu D6eil silUiulUS was Duf1eQ beneath tons
Of hot brick and iron girders. From
that time on, Chief Engineer Conway di-
rected his men to use more precaution
and not risk their lives.
The firemen fought at a great disad-
vantage and the flames, famed by the
stiff breeze which was blowing, increas-
ed in fury. The falling of the wall sent
burning. emibers high into the air and
mnny firemen We're painfully burned
about the hands and neck by the embers
falling. on them. The intensity of the
may be imagined when it warped the
fire hose and burned hundreds of teIe-
graph wires which were strung across
the street on poles to a white heat. The
firemen were compelled to remain in
Coles street and turn streams on the
burning buildings. The water had no eff
feet whatever. apparently
The tenement house, No. 322 First
street, presented an odd appearance.
Twenty minutes after it caught fire, all
the floors had been burned away and the
four walls remained standing apparent
ly unsupported, the flames shooting high
above the rocf. The bricks were red hot
and it was only the excellence of the
masonry as,ory that kept them standing.>
period only. that he would be able to
confine the fire to the big tenement house
and to Payne's store. The frame build
ings had been saturated with water and
the firemen believed they were safe. The
occupants entertained the same belief ap-
parently, because many. remained in their
tected issuing from the roof of No. 317
First street, a three-story frame house.
owned by James Fitzgerald and occupied
by five families.
The second floor front, to the right of
the hall, was occupied by the family of
John Donnelly. MIR. Donnelly died Mon
day night and wake was being held
when the fire in Payne's broke out. The
mournerS paid little or no attention to
it, The family of the deceased did not
even go into the street to ascertain if
they were in any immediate danger.
Family and mourners actually remained
in the house until firemen rushed in upon
them and told them that they must flee
for their lives. Before they awakened
to the, danger Of their situation, escape
through the front door was cut off. A
sudden gust of wind had carried the
flames from the big brick fat and from
the Payne building across the street. To
beautiful. The entire street seemed a
river Of flame. The front of No. 317 First
street was ablaze in minute, and the
rescued with difficulty by f1remen, who
carried the women and children down
rickety ire-escapes and ladders.
nhe e ene
ers became hysterical and refused to
leave the house. They had to be dragged
The eoay sn RFopg MSo a peen h at be de0r wake
with two exceptions, and they were
brothers or cousins of the deceased, just
Wn1cl COuld nOl De aScerIdlneQ, smashed
out windows, jumped into the yard fifteen
feet below, scaled fences and made their
escape into Clark place and Railroad ave-
nue..
The corpse. lay in a casket in the front
room. the windows of which had already
been cracked out by the intensity of the
heat. The curtains in the room, a few
feet from where the casket stood were
on fire when the two men who had re-
mained behind picked up the casket and
with as much ease as possible down
through a narrow hall to the basement
and thence out into the back yard
Policemen and firemen, who had been
went to the assistance of the men who
were carrying 1t and raised it over fences
and carried it out into Railroad avenue
From there it was removed to the house
Of an old friend of Mr.. Donnelly's in
Wayne street.
No S17 First street was in the centre
of a long row Of frame houses three
stories high; The houses of fhe whole
block in WHICH it stogd were frame .struc-
would all be swept away unless the flames
were confined to No. 319
Ffremen made their way to the roofs
OF adjoining houses, carrying hose with
them. Holes were chopped in the roof
OF NO 3l7 This new vent made a COM
plete draught, and in almost less time
than 1T takes to describe, the entire struc-
ture was in flames.
The roar of the flames drowned the
voices of the firemen in the street who
to their comrades to escape from the roof
of the house.
Unaware of their danger the firemen
remained at their posts until they made
adjoining No. 81 was in flames, Refnre
they could escape. clouds of smoke circled |
about them hiding them from view