The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-21

Fire this morning destroyed the wait
ing room and all that portion of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Jersey
City lying between the train shed and the
ferry slips.
The firemen, by dint of hard fighting,
managed to save the depot proper, the
ferries and Adams Express Company's s
pier.
The waiting room and the Keystone
restaurant are completely wrecked The
floor fell in shortly before five o'clock.
From then until six O'Clock when the fire.
men got the flames somewhat under con-
troll the space where the waiting room
used to be was a fierce furnaeo c55The
heavy iron girders were twisted out of
shape as if they had been so nucn cop
per wire. Live wires were hanging in all
parts of the building and made the work
of the firemen exceedingly hazardous.
Two firemen were injured. They are
JOHN RYAN, arm crushed by heavy
hose falling on it.
CHARLES JOB, of Engine No. 10, right
arm broken in two places by being
caught in the fly wheel of his engine.
1t was reported that man fell off one
of the fire tugs and was drowned; but if
such was the case the police received no
word of it.
No one knows just how the fire started,
but it is supposed that carelessness on
the part of one of the employees of the
the kitchen was responsible for it. The
fire started in the kitchen, which was
under the restaurant on the south side of
the waiting room. 1t had gained eonsfd-
cradle headway before it was discovered.
After the owl train leaves. the depot at
midnight, the depot is closed until 3:3S
O'Clock. when the Philadelphia train comes
in. After this, it is closed again for two
hours. The employees of the restaurant
had finished their work and left at one
O'Clock. After the depot closed, the only
persons remaining in it were Patrolman
Timothy ]. Murphy, who passes in and
out throughout the night; Detective Kel-
ly, the night watchman employed by the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company to guard
the depot, and James Parker night clean
er, and his assistant. In the ticket office,
waiting for the first train out in the morn
ing. were sleeping night Ticket Agent G..
B. Aathouse and Richard Brown, who was
being broken in by him.
It was nearly 2:SO o'clock when Kelly
and Murphy noticed a thin line of smoke
curling up through the floor near the res
taurant 1t increased in volume every
second
They hurried to investigate, Parker
joining them Nothing could be discov-
cred on the waiting room floor
They rushed to the basement and burst
In the door of the restaurant kitchen.
They were nearly blinded with the smoke,
which poured out in volumes the moment
they did So The interior of the kitchen
was a mass of flames.
They rushed to the nearest fire box and
turned in an alarm. Kelly then remem-
bered the men who were sleeping in the
ticket Office He hurried back to the wait
ing room The fire was spreading rapidly
and the room was filled with smoke by
the time he got back It was all he could
do to struggle through 1t. The sleeping
men were unsuspicious Of danger
Kelly aroused them by his frantic
knocking on the door. They were up in
an instant and ran through the smoke
together, making for the ferry entrance.
Brown continued on through it, and was
nearly suffocated, the fire being fercest
in that direction having been given vent
through the broken door.
Althouse remembering the cash box in
his oflce went but short distance and