New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-09
DEATH AMID FLAME AND SMOKE.
LEFT ALONE BY HER HUSBAND. WITH NO
MEANS OF ESCAPE. A WOMAN PER-
ISHES IN AN EAST SIDE FIRE.

Mrs. Rachel Magnus was burned to death and her
husband narrowly escaped death In fire which
started In the house In which they lived at No 81
Avenue B. early last night. The house Is a three
story structure with store the ground floor
The store occupied by William H. Schuman, a
florist, and the floor above by the family OF label
Amsterdam. consisting Of his wife and three chill
dren. The third. top. floor, occupied by
Louis Magnus, his wife, Rachel his three daughters
and two sens. Mr.. Magnus Is sixty-two years Old
his wife was forty-eght years old and the children
are all adults All of the children out OF the
building at the time. the eldest daughter having left
10 so TO cigar store around the corner only few
minutes before the fire broke out.
The fire started in the show window OF the horsts $
establishment. and caused by a gas jet setting
fire to wax floral piece in the window. The flames
caught the woodwork, and the next minute the big
plateglass window burst with crash and sheet
of flame shot out over the sidewalk
Mr.. Schuman rushed from the store when he saw
the fire. shouting for help. The street crowd
ed with shoppers and children playing about the
sidewalks. Policeman Callahan, of the Union Mar
ket station saw the excitement and turned in an
alarm. BY this time the flames had set fire 10 the
lower part of the stairway leading to the apart
ments above, and escape cut off in this direc-
tion. Just before the fire reached the stairway,
however. the Amsterdam family had been warned,
and all of them reached the street In safety.
Mr.. and Mrs. Magnus still upstairs. When
they discovered that the house on fire they
ran 10 the hallway. and. finding that the fire was
eating Its way up the stairs, they started for the
front windows. They found that the flames had
caught the woodwork about the windows. and the
smoke and flame were pouring into their apart
ments.
The screams Of the and woman could be
heard plainly above the cracking Of the flames by
the people who stood horrorstrcken in the street.
once they saw the face of the frantic woman at
the window through the smoke and flames. This
was the last seen of her The husband made for
the hallway again, and started down the stairs,
leaving his wife to perish. How he reached the
street he cannot tell himself. He dashed down the
stairs and into the flames. He got through them,
but was badly burned about the face. hands and
body, and the hair was singed on his head
that a woman still in the house n hurry call
was sent for two ambulances one of them took
the husband to the St. Francis Hospital. in Fifth
st. whore IL was said that his injuries were serious
but not fatal.
The fremen soon had several streams OF water
at play on the flames and they fought their way
into the building and up to the top floor. where II
was known that Mrs. Magnus They found
her lying upon sofa In front ROOM Her hands
and face were blackened by smoke. and her dress
badly burned. She had evidently been over
come by the smoke and sufocated TO death. Her
body removed in patrol wagon to the station.
The flames destroyed the store and the fronts Of
the two upper stories. The damage was estimated
n about 1900