The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-02-01


Schroeder. 40 years old; Henry SCHROEDER,
II years: Katie Schroeder. 9 years: Mag
Igie Schroeder. Z years: John Schroeder;
months-old baby. The bodies were re-
moved to the Morgue. The blacksmith
shop was Quilted and the other two
buildings were partly damaged. Accord
the dead family, is a worthless character.
and the poor condition of his wife and
children was due to his drunken ways.
a week ago the police were called into
the house to stop a drunken fight be-
tween Schroeder and his wife.
Schroeder said that he had gone to his
apartments shortly before the fire start
led On finding his wife and family
where he continued to play cards. He
has not done any work in months and
| his wife and children have. lived on what
| the neighbors would give them.
Blanchford. who also lived on the top
floor, is a pocketbook maker, He Is at
present out of employment, and be-
ing very poor. his family was taken to
Police Headquarters. Mayor Pagan was
awakened by a messengers who went to
| his house to inform him Of the calamity,
| and he gave special orders to haYe the
homeless cared for.
The Blanchford family Included Mrs.
Nellie Blanchford. AZ years Eold; Nellie
Logan. a married daughter, 10 years old;
John, q years old; Edward, ii years old;
James, IL years old, and Robert, 5 years
old. All of their belongings was destroy
| ed. John, the eldest son. was not in the
house when the fire started.
IN aIectfonate scene was witnessed at
| Police Headquarters. Mrs. Blanchford
and her three smallest children were
placed in the p~atrolmen's room and given
stretchers to sleep on. Before they re-
tired the mother and the children knelt
down on the floor, and, resting their
heads on the ~stretchers. said their pray
ers.
About fifteen minutes before three
o'clock and within forty minutes after
guished.L Dennis Sullivan, who lives at
No. 159 Fourteenth street, was returning
to his home when he saw smoke issuing
formed Policeman Meyers, who was
standing at Bloomfield street, and the
POLICEMAN rang an alarm from box No.
"a. This happened just at the time when
the bodies at the Newark street fire were
being discovered. The fire department
was just returning from the first fire and
great excitement prevailed when the
alarm was heard to ring again. The en-,
gines were in disorder and not one was
In q fit condition to send uptown.
Meanwhile, every moment the flames
were Increasing In the Fourteenth street
building; They crept up through theh hall
way and began to shoot out through the
hall windows, near the sleeping apart
ments of the tenants, all of whom were
ignorant of the surrounding danger.
ana several H otKer' p alS,s1ee pE broke Sulil into
~~AAt& OhAAS AAAtO
the. house and began to awake the ten
ants.
Some men employed in the. Hudson
Electric Light works across the street
saw the blaze and got out a chemical
engine used in the power house With
this the men made an effort to stop the
smoke in the house became dense,s Police
man Meyers ran quickly through the FIVE
stories shouting and banging with his
club on the doors of the rooms where the
tenants slept. In a few minutes III
floors were in flames and the whole house
was filled with smoke. The tenants did
their lives were in peril. They started to
make their escape on every side and some
thrilling scenes followed.
The fire spread to No. 159 and No. los,
all fiye-Story brick tenements. One fire
engine arrived after the fire had been go
ing On for nearly t-hree-Quarters Of an
hour, and a stream was finally thrown
on the flames.
The top floor of No. 157 was occupied
by Henry C. Mangels, his wife and five
children. Mr.. Mangels was Ill during the
kitchen about three o'clock, when he
heard a crash in the dumb waiter and
saw flames coming up the shaft. The
rope holding the waiter had been burned
by the fire and it fell to the cellar. Re
aliZing the danger, Mangels woke up his
wife and children and told them to fol-
low him into the hall. When he threw
open the door leading into the hail ne
was startled to find the stairs a mass
of flames. Mangels took his ten-year-old
boy, Henry, in his arms and made a rush
down the stairs. He got through the
flames safely and reached the lowerSfloor.
Mrs. Mangels tried to follow him with
her three-year-old child Arthur, and lead
ing Gertrude, six years of age, by the
hand, but she was driven back1by the
flames. Florence, who Is sixteen years OF
age, came next, with Mabel, eight years
old, but the flames burned her hand Sc
yerely and she ran back also.
William Jackson, a lneman employed
by the Hudson Electric Light Company.
lives with his wife in rooms on the same
floor. He was awakened by the noise in
the hall, and finding his apartments filled
with smoke he rushed out into the hall
way. The flames had cut off all way
of escape by the stairs, and he climbed
a ladder leading to the scuttle of the
roof and broke it open. In his excitement
wife, and grabbing her in his arms he car
ried her out on the roof. He then went
along to No. 1853 where he opened aAscut-
tie and put Florence down jn that house
get his wife he met her half way up the
ladder. Behind Mrs. jackson was Mrs.
M fronf ofs b wh0 g sas p had grth MABEL h hen dn
arms and Gertrude was ~cllrgingAt to the
ladder beside her. Mrs. Jackson got out
bel att fr m dit 10 1ig geacb pf for w the sc msstg M ahe
stumbled and fell past her mother into
the. hall, where the flames were raging.
MrS. MdIStS, Dy tdXluS neF< strength 10
its utmost, managed to lift the other two
children out on the ROOF. With a shrek
she then rushed back for MabeIand was
about to descend into the flames when Mr..
jackson caught her. All of the tenants
were in their night clothes sand the roof
sof the tenement was SO hot that it bis.
tered their feet. 5S So.
While. the escape was going on through
the roof Henry Mangels, who had reached
the street in safety, was beside himself
with grief believing that his wife and
family had been burned alive. When
he.learned of their escape, however. he
still grieved for Mabel. She was burned
to death. The firemen are still locking
for her body which is somewhere In the
The fire had reached every floor in the
building when the firemen got a stream
Of water on it. No. 157 was Quilted and
Nos. 1853 and 15 were also on fire. Police
man Meyers made a daring rescue. He
cilmbed up the fire escape of No. 1877 to
the third story and lifting himself along
by ciinging to the shutters he rescued a
handed the child to Roundsman Kilduff,
VINO was close behind him on the fire
escape, and it was taken safely to. the
street. In this manner over ighty people
We're rescued. Everyone was gotten out
Of the burning buildings by the police
except Mabel Mangells.
The tenants in the three houses lost
to get even. their clothes.as The Kind
hearted people living in the neighborhood
opened their doors to the sufferers. some
of whom were sent to Lohman,s Hotel.
at Washington and Fourteenth streets.
They were all given shelter for the night.
BY SIX o'clock Sunday morning the FIRE
was gotten under control. The house No.
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