The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-21


said he would notify the Fire Department
| at once.
Every moment the fire was increasing.
| The families In the doomed houses had
| plenty of time, however, to get out of
| their homes in safety, as the flames did
not reach the interior of the tenements
| until nearly an hour after the alarm was
q large part Of their furniture. Several
rooms on stretchers Mrs. Elizabeth
Manning, who lived IN No. 1,225, was car
ried out and removed to St. Mary's Hos
p4tal. She is suffering from consump-
I ton. Two little children were found by
Chanceman Hecht in the lower hallway
at No. 1917. They seemed completely be-
| wildered. and if Hecht had not seen them
they would probably have been suffocat-
| ca. The names of the little ones are
not known as they We're taken in by
| Robert Palmer, one of the neighbors,
vent into the same house and found Mrs.
| bed partly delrious from sickness. She
! was taken to the hospital, and it is said
| her condition is critical Another sick
was removed from No. POS, and was taxi
en- care of by friends.
Rudolph l9l. h Reez. employed by the Ameri-
| piece OF valuable machinery, but fell and
Srnshng seyeral Of his toes His INJURIES
lice station, and he was taken home.
While Louis Perrand was carrying
| ooAaS LUZ Hftufe from HIS rooms dl NO.
lso6. he stopped on a piece of broken
! glass and cut cash in his foot. He was
also attended at the police station and
went home.
By the time all the tenants had gotten
out the flames were beginning to burn
through the rear walls of the tenements
and to appear in the front windows. In
response to the telephone message sent
by Commissioner Bruning, engines Nos. l,
and and one truck company from this
city arrived within twenty minutes after
a or ton crit fna
companies drove up Washington street
| they were cheered by the mob. They were
led by Chief Conway and Assistant Chief
Denmead who drove in a carriage. The
Jersey City men did good service, but the
fire was then so far advanced that all
the hopes of saving the houses were
abandoned.
The attention of the firemen was turned
to preventing the fire from spreading to
the surrounding buildings. The heat was
intense and persons were unable to stand
few hundred yards from the river and the
whole front was Illuminated.
Embers as big as eggs dropped in the
streets and compelled the crowd to beat
a hasty retreat. Some of the sparks were
carried by the brisk wind as far as
Weehawken.
Some of the heavily laden floor in the
factory fell with crash that could be
heard some distance away. There were
also several slight explosions caused by
chemicals which were used in the New
i OTh GdpET w OIkS. Inc illumination
from the fire could be plainly seen from
New York and other cities Chief Bonner
of the New York Fire Department tele-
phoned to Mayor Pagan and offered to
send engines across the ferry if they were
needed. Mayor Pagan, however, said that
as long as the fire had not spread to any
other blocks he did not think that the
New York engines would be needed
Some electric light wires across Thirteenth
street were in danger of being burned and
a lineman was sent by the company to
cut them down. The man climbed the pole
amid a shower of sparks and black smoke
and accomplished his task apparently
without fear while the crowd looked on.
The firemen had great difficulty in
stream of water was played on the
machine shops of w. D. Forbes & Co., on
Thirteenth street and prevented it from
catching fire. 1t looked at one time as
though the Forbes shops would go and
Mr. Forbes who was present called upon
the Naval Reserves who were aboard the
Portsmouth preparing the ship for her
summer cruise. The men responded
quickly and under command of Manuel
Llera formed bucket brigade and kept
the roof of Mr.. Forbes shop covered with
water which probably saved the shop from
obstruction.
The Fletcher Iron Works and the Yellow
Pine Company directly opposite the fac
tory on Hudson street had all their en-
with water. They have their own fire
service.
Most of those whose houses were burn
ed were taken in by aeighbons. Poor
master Henry Barck was on hand and
worked vigorously all night arranging for
the care of the unfortunatess The Rev.
DR.. A. B. RICHARDSON of the First Method
ist Church offered the use Of his church
to shelder the families during the night.
But P6ormaster Barck had already
secured other places. The members of the
States Ship Portsmouth lying at the foot
of Fifteenth street offered the use of
their ship and number Of the families
made their beds on the gun deck.
were piled in the streets were covered
street an night Efohard Stevens opened
up s aoDosen On 1a sSs dRFesssaa et a Go
All the buildings Is the block were
demolished; gaey were owned by y the the
tory is $500 ees and sEhat .of fhsstensments
sz Ws4e ea An wss se vaabe as ashneTg N ts lae9ps ns
which were ,occapdedsh BY a Abraflam & stfaus
were stored iargs qasnsity Of valuable
chinery were valued. at 100000 There
was also $4,000 worth OF paper stored on
the first and SECOND floors in the factory
Five of the unfortunate families who
were QflVen OUT Oh Jffe1r homes SEIIeT6H
the same misfortune Some months ago
when three. tenements on Fourteenth
street were burned After the Fourteenth
street fire they moved into one of. the
flats which was burned last night. Among
the famies was that of Mrs. Mary Man
gels, who lived in No. LOS. Mrs Man
gels little daughter Mabel was burned
to death in the Fourteenth street disas-
ter.
While the fire was raging some of the
sparks were blown as far as the Weehaw-
ken Cove. beyond Sixteenth street, and
SET. fire to about DOZEN tofdf canal boats
and also Dexters swimming bath. The
cove is very shallow water, and the tug
boats from the river could not come in
far enough. The Pennsylvania tug Lin
den, however, ran a length of hose from
the river across the docks and succeeded
in extinguishing most of the flames. The
swimming bath was totally destroyed.
THE canal boats were old condemned
boats, and no special effort was made
to save them
The main fire was under control by
eleven o'clock, and finally died down to
a sm0ulderng mass of ruins A special
appropriation will be made for the house,
less families by the Council today.
K The need of a larger fire dep ~rtment in
the city was never more keeniy felt by
the citizens than it was last night This
is the third large fire that has occurred
in the city since last November. It is
very likely that some members of the
Council will go before the Tax Board,
which meets this afternoon. and demand
an appropriation for more fire apparatus.
Mayor Pagan and Mayor Hoos of Jersey
We're attending the funeral services of
Col Erlenkoetter. Rev DR. Houghton
had just pronounced the beautiful words !