The record-union., 1897-04-01
FIVE PERSONS LOST
THEIR LIVES.
Dreadful Results Of an Apartment House
Fire at New York.
Only Those on the First Floor of the
Building Escape.

From the Ruins, One of Whom
Was a Woman With Child
Clasped in Her Arm-Firemen
Bravely Attempt to Rescue the
Helpless.
NEW YORK, March 31.-Develop-
ments prove that five, instead of three
persons, were suffocated by smoke in
the five-story apartment house, 81 West
One Hundred and Fifth street, which
was partially destroyed by fire yester
day. At an early hour this morning
the bodies of Mrs. Adelia Darlington and
her five-yearold adopted son, Marielle,
We're discovered between the stairwayS
on the fourth floor of the building. Last
night it was reported that everybody
who was in the building at the time of
the fire was accounted for, but later it
developed that Mrs. Darlington and her
boy must have been in the house. 1t
seems that they went out an hour before
the fire broke out, telling the janitOr
that they would not return until even
that the Darlingtons were safe, and so
reported to the police. Nothing being
heard from Mrs. Darlington, however,
up to a late hour last night, the neigh
bors and the police became alarmed for
their safety and at once instituted a
search, which resulted in the finding of
the bodies this morning. The list of the
dead now stands as follows:
Darlington, Mrs. Adelina. recently at
Greenwich, Conn.
Darlington Marielle, ) years old.
French, Mrs. Elizabeth, % years Of
age, of Puebla, Mexico.
French, Fidele. daughter of Mrs. Eliz-
abeth French, 3 months old.
Morrissey, Miss Ellen, 45 years old, of
Albany, n. Y.
Mrs. French, whose husband, Alberto
French, bookkeeper in the office of a
railroad in Puebla Mexico, is a brother
of Mrs. Darlington, and had been visit
ing the Darlingtons in Greenwich. She
intended to join her husband as soon as
their baby could bear the journey.
None of those who were in the build
i-.g when the fire started could explain
how it was caused There is a passage
way through the basement to the rear of
the house where two dumb-waiter
shafts communicate with the apart
ments. After these was the air shaft
which sucked the fire up to the roof like
the smokestack of a furnace. Doors at
the front and back of the house leading
into the passageway were open and any
one might have entered without being
seen AS is usual in apartment houses,
boys and men were continually passing
to and from the dumb walters to deliver
articles from shops.
The janitress of the building, Mrs.
Annie Harrington, said that there had
been no fire in the furnace since Sun
day and there was nothing burning in
the basement except a gas jet, which
was toward the front, some distance
from the air shaft.
Il came out to go across the hall about
half-past l o'clock to get some more
Clothes" said Mrs. Harrington, land
saw great sheet of flame at the foot
of the air shaft. The boy was outside
in the street shaking carpet, and
was the only one in the basement. /
ran up stairs as fast as | could to tell
the folks that the building was on fire,
but l could not get beyond the fourth
floor on account of the smoke. l came
back and went out of the front door,
Ernest Dixon, who was janitor of an
other apartment house a few yards
away, ran and turned in an alarm.
When he returned he found it impossi-
BILE to get into the house. He hastened
to the roof of the next house on the east
and jumped down to the roof of the
burning building. He could hear the
screams of the women below him. There
was not a man in the house when the
fire started The flames roared up
through the air shaft to the roof.
Warned by their cracking and by
smoke the tenants rushed to the stair
ways to find escape that way already
cut off. Only those on the first floor had
time to get out of the front door, and
they were able to save nothing. The
fire must have made remarkable rapid
headway. Chief Joseph Shea, who
hastened down from One Hundred and
Twenty street and was the first to
get there at once turned in two more
alarms, summoning all the engines in
the district. AT that time the flames
were roaring through the upper floor of
the building and women were hanging
out of the windows, screaming for help.
In the terror and confusion it was i'm
possible to tell who had escaped Those
who made their way out were taken in
by their neighbors and cared for
The fremen learned that there was
woman and a baby on the upper floor
The negro hall boy said the woman
had come TO the window and made q
motion as if she would throw the child
into the street, and had then disap-
peared. A desperate attempt was
made to reach the top floor over the
roof but it proved impossible. A sixty
foot ladder was run up. and the fire
men climbed it, but they were unable
to find any living soul, and the smoke
and flames prevented them from going
inside. A rope was tied about the body
of one of The firemen on the roof in the
hope that he might be able to get into
the apartment. He was lowered over
the roof. but could not reach the win
dow and was drawn back The crowd
which had heard that a woman was
imprisoned in the building. watched
the firemen breathlessly as they made
their attempt at rescue. Women looked
with tears running down their cheeks.
and some of them sobbed and turned
away as the firemen were beaten back
empty handed. A dozen streams of
water were by this time playing on the
structure, and the fire, which had eaten