The Portland daily press., 1897-10-12
MIKE kELLEY's BRAVE ACT
He Undoubtedly Saved An Old Woman's
Life Last Night.

A tenement house fire is the worse kind
Vi hre TO hight as a rule and one which
the hremen always dislike to be called
out to- They had one last night in big
four-story brick block at No. r Pleasant
street, winch was not very hot blaze,
but hard ono to reach. The fire was
distinguished without any damage to
speak of and once more the fire depart.
ment proved itself to be most efficient
organization.
| This tenement house contains any
number of families, probably a dozen or
! more at the very least. 1t is cut I'D into
| small low posted rooms and the stair
cases which from one story to another
are very narrow and steep, with many
crooks and turns and treacherous rail
ings and mystifying corners. The hall
ways are not lighted at all and in fact
| the building, was regular fire trap, and
had the blaze occurred later in the eve
ming it might have been a far more dis
astrous one.
The fire broke out on the top floor in a
closet opening out of room occupied by
Mary Jane Conley. The closet was filled
withs all manner of infammable material
and the fire, which started in one corner,
in some unknown way, rapidly worked
its way up under the roof and in be-
tween the partitions. The stair case lead
Ing up to this top floor was particularly
narrow and steep. On one side of the
narrow hall way at the top is the door
opening into Mary Jane Cpnley's room
and the door on the other side of the hall
opens into room in which there was
sleeping when the fire broke out WON
an about 70 years old, who is very hard
of hearing and quite sick.
1t was 9.15 O'Clock when Patrick Lam
gan, who lives ON the floor just beneath
tine top floor where the fire broke out,
was coming up stairs. He smelled the
smoke and heard the noise of the flames.
Langan with another young man named
Murray and several others who were
aroused by his cries, ran up the steep
stair case to the top floor where the smoke
was so thick that it was impossible to see
and almost impossible to breath. Langan
put his shoulder to the door of Mrs.
Conley's room and forced it open. The
cloud of smoke which burst out into the
hallway drove the young men down
stairs and Langan started for box to
pull in an alarm. Mike Kelley, who
lives in this house, recolleoted that the
old woman, Mary Linnehan, was alone in
the room adjoining the burning closet
He hurried up stairs and broke open the
door of this room, which he found filled
| with smoke. 1t was dark in the room
and Kelley could not see thing but by
| this time the old woman had been
awakened by the smoke and was coughing
and moaning. She managed to get out
of bed and was on her knees beside it,
Kelley foundsher readily.and taking her in
his arms succeeded in getting out of the
rooms and down stairs with her.
| BY this time the alarm had been pulled
in, the tenement house and all of those
in the vicinity were filled with crying
women, screaming children, excited men
and pandemonium reigned supreme
The department, owing to the fact that
the lower part of Centre street is being
paved and the streets are blocked up, had
to take round about course to get to
the fire. The chemical got stream on
the blazing closet in short order and al
though another line of hose from one Of
| the engines was run up into the building
it was not needed and the blaze was
put out without very much damage. 1t
was another fire well handled and al
though it is shopworn phase the fire.
men deserve much credit for the way the
work was performed.