The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-04-13
THIRTEEN LIVES LOST
burned to Death in n Fire mt New


York.
New York, April 9.-Fire early yes
terday morning destroyed the hand
some residence Of Wallace c. Andrews
at No. East SiXty-seventh street. and
twelve persons sleeping in the house
were burned to death. Fire brands
carried by the wind were blown into
the open window of Albert j. Adams,
NO. ), East Sixty ninth street, two
blocks distant, setting fire to the house
and causing the death of servant.
All of the thirteen bodies have been
recovered. Several persons were
more or less injured.
Whether the fire started from an
explosion of Il lamp or of gas has not
yet been determined. But when it was
first discovered at . o'clock in the
morning the flames seemed to burst
from all parts of the house at once.
Policeman Mcknight was at Fifth
avenue and Sixty sixth street, when
he heard an explosion and saw the
glare Of flames in Sixty-seventh street
He ran with all haste to the spot and
found tongues of fire leaping from the
upper windows of the Andrews house
and halfway across the street. He
tried to break in the door and arouse
the inmates Of the house, but was
driven back by the flames. Not wait
ing any longer than to arouse the
family of the RothschildS in the adj
joining house, No. 4, he sent in an
alarm. When the firemen arrived they
went through the Rothschilds house
and managed to get in the rear rooms
of the third floor of the Andrews
house, where they found Mrs. st.
John and her three year-old son Wal
lace, unconscious on the floor, their
night clothes almost burned off. They
were quickly taken into the Roths-
childs house. Mrs. ST. John died in
few minutes. Her child died in fire
mans arms. The firemen made re-
peated efforts to get to the other rooms
but they might as well have attacked
n furnace. The building, if saturated
with oil, could hardly have burned
more fiercely. Like most large New
York dwellings it was high and mar
row and encased on two sides By solid
brick walls and the effect was like IA
great chimney. The flames roared
and cracked and shot into the air a
distance of a hundred feet or more.
/ liloN SItdt HClt SyldN ONtE tie
roofs of the surrounding houses. All
efforts to arouse the inmates in time
to save themselves were fruitless, and
aside from Mrs. st. John, the only 9th
er persons who got out of the house
alive were the two servants, Jennie
Burns and Alice White, who appeared
at the upper windows terror-stricken,
and, needless of the cries of the fire.
men that they would raise ladders and
save them, jumped. Jennie Burns
leaped out first. She turned over and
over and fell almost directly on her
head. Her skull was fractured i'm
several places. The other woman,
when she saw the fate of her friend,
hesitated for moment, then as the
smoke thickened, she, too, jumped.
She fell upon rear extension of the
building and was picked up uncon-
Scious and severely injured.
While the fire in the Andrews house
was raging great clouds of sparks
were carried with the wind and a
brand fell into an upper open window
of the house of Albert j. Adams. 1t
caught in n curtain and instantly the
room was ablaZe. \ servant lost her
life. The police and iiremen got the
family out without serious injury.