The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-02-02
FAMILIES HOMELESS
Fire in Day & O'Donnell's
Cooperage Spreads to
Neighboring Ten
ements.
FlREMEN's EXCELLENT WORK
Horses Rescued at Great Risk
Chief Denmead's Frozen
Coat.
flREMEN's EXCELLENT WORK

Coat.
For over twelve hours today the mem
bers of the Jersey City Fire Department
fought a fire which defed their eff
forts and continued to burn While they
slowly froza. Nearly a hundred firemen
are on the verge of collapse as a result of
their terrible nights work in the bitter
cold. They were coated with ice and
were numb with the cold and yet they
fought on. The fire was burning at ten
o'clock this morning. but was well IN
hand. The iremen wereAcoated with ice;
icicles hung from their hair, boards and
moustaches, and their coats, trousers and
boots were caked with il.
Chief was wearing mis- second
coat at eight O'Clock this morning, ana it
was SO heavy and stiff upon him that he
had to change it for another. He could
not get his first coat off 50 neavily vas
the ice coated upon it. He tried, but
found it Impossible by ordinary means Il
tempting to tear it off he would not
only break the coat to pieces but would
probably injure himself as well He iinal-
from one of the ~neighbors and boiled 1t
off. The process tok some time, but 1t
was the only che, effective nfnn,s meth %d T. S,oE be
Nout this morning from his long nights
work, but he kept al his post and worked
.Wirh the men untilSthe fire was thoroughly
THE fire which caused all this trouble
broke out at lib O'clock last night IN
Day & Donnell's cooperage, at Sussex ana
Van Worst streets. The cooperage oc-
cupied a series of buildings on either side
of the street. Those on the south side
an; on the north side Were the main
buildings of the cooperage. The buildings
on the south side were Totally destroyed
by the fire. The hrernen bent all their
efforts towards saving he main buildings,
as had they caught ire the flames would
have spread to and Probably would Fave
vate houses bounded by Grand street,
the canal, Van Worst street and LENDER
SON street This wouli have meant the
the loss of several hunifed5 Of thousand
dollars worth of property. As it IS the
loss will got much r exceed 1900; a1 5ne
had their stable. On the soulh, side OF
the street and adjoining the stable was a
large storage warehouse where the bar
ing that the fire stared; how is a mys-
terry. When the tiremen arrived the
smoke from the burning shocks and bar
rel heads, which made excellent food for
the flames, was so dense that they could
not. grope their way through it. They
could approach in a standing position no
nearer than Van Worst street.
Chief Denmead lost no time in specalat-
ing, he must locate the fire oefore he
could Successfully fight it, leading the
way out and ordering his men TO follow
he dropped on his hands and knees and
crawled alons the greund until The stable
was reached. Several of the men dragged
hose along with them and as soon as they
saw that the fire was n The storehouse
they began to play upon It. The othsp
horses. They knocked in the doors OF the
stables with their axes. They found; 10
their horror, that tre lire nab worked
had communicated to the stables. The
horses were stamping and rearing and
southwest corner of the building. had al
ready been reached by the flames and a
large gray horse was kicking in her death
agony. -Four other drdugit horses We're
flames licked their sides was almost hui
man in its p~iteousness:
BY this time President George Nc
Carthy of the S. P. c. A. had arrived with
Superintendent Abel Brown and Officers
Seidell and Mcdonald. They We're pro-
vided with bagging. wha tar4Igh
went to their assistance. They loosened
the horses, one at a time, aking those
who were nearest the flames first. They
passed the halter of each horse over his
jaw, so that they could hold the animal,
and placing a bag over his head lead it
out of the building and through the blind
ing smoke to a place of safety. In this
way they saved sixteen horses and res
cued four that had to be shot this morn
ing, so severe were their burns.
There was one powerful horse in the
stable which resisted all efforts to save
it, and it required the combined efforts
of President Mccarthy and Superinten-
dent Brown to get it out. The animal
dragged both men from their fee again
and again, but they chung to 1t until they
finally got it out. After rescuing the
horses in Day & O'Donnelps stable, the
S. p. C. A. officers took the United States
mail horses from the stable on Van Worst
street, north of Sussex, as it looked as
if that whole block would be destroyed.
The fremen turned several lines of hose
| on tba ctah1p at the head of Sussex street
as the flames were rapidly destroying that
building, and were approaching the main
buildings between which and the store
house it formed a connection. 1t was sew
eral hours before the main building was
pronounced out of danger. In the mean
time the fire had destroyed the stable and
the greater part of the ~storehouse, and
had communicate with the three-StOry
tenement lying south of the cooperage,
which is owned by John Dolan. While one
set of fremen were fighting to save the
main buildings other firemen were trying
their best to save the tenement belonging
to Dolan, and those at Nos. 2o3 and 205
Van Worst street.
They were at a great disadvantage, how
ever, as they could not get a line of hose
in the rear of the burning building, the
canal shutting them off in that direction.
The best they could do was to May on
the sides of the tenement and u14n the
fire over the low stables and shoes that
lie between the cooperage and the tene-
ments. Do what they would, they could
not prevent the flames from communicat-
ing to the tenements, and in less than an
hour after the fire started half a dozen
families had been driven to the street.
Furniture was hurled from the windows
of Dolan's house, and much of it was
saved. The families who were driven out
by the flames, which destroyed the top
floor of DoIan s house completely and
wrecked the rest of the building WERE
Henry Dyckman, five members; Michael
Hogan, four members; John Dolan, three
members. The saloon of r. Mulvihill was
also ruined. The Dykmans lived on the
top floor. Everything they had was lost
in the flames. The poor people. thrown
out of their homes in the middle of the
might. some of them scantily clad. sought
refuge with neighbors. This morning they
sorted their respective belongings from
the pile ofsfurniture that had been. saved
from the fire and sought other apart
l. mentS.
Charles Betz, fifty years old, of No. 205
Van Worst street, was overcome by smoke
while trying to get out of his home after
the fire had been discovered. He was
recovered. This morning the kind-hsa~r-
ed neighbors prepared hot coffee and a
wiches for the hungry and almost frozen
fremen. They took turns in snatching a
bite and a drink of coffee. Many of the
firemen had their fingers frozen. Num-
bers of the men would not desert their
posts, although they were suffering great
pain and could scarcely handle the hose.
The alarm was sounded last night by
Daniel Jordan. a Waterman in tBrinck-
man & Hauck's wagon factory across the
street from the cooperage. He was the
first one to discover the fire.