Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1899-04-13
Palatial Residence of w. C. An
drews Burned Like Tinder.
JUST TWO PERSONS ESCAPED
An Aristocratic Section of the City Is
the Scene of n Holocaust, Only Sur-
passed in Extent by the Windsor
Hotel Disaster.

wind We're blown into an open window
in the home of Albert j. Adams, No.
East SiXty-ninth street, two blocks dis
tant. setting fire to the house and caus-
ing the death of a servant. All of the
13 bodies have been recovered. The
dead are:
Wallace c. Andrews. president of the
New York Steam Heating Co.
Mrs. w. c. Andrews, wife of the
above.
Mrs. Georgiana b. st. John. wife of
Mrs. Andrews brother, Gamaliel c. St.
John. an official of the New York
Steam Heating Co.
Orson St. John, aged years.
Wallace st. John. aged years.
Frederick st. John, aged 13 months.
Nellie Boand, servant.
Mary Flanagan, servant.
Eva Peterson, servant.
Kate Downing, servant.
Mary Roth, servant.
Annie Neary, servant.
In the Adams fire Mary Laughnan,
aged 50 years, housekeper, died from
suffocation and burns.
Alice White, cook and Jennie Burns,
laundress, the only inmates of the An
drews house who escaped, are in the
hospital in a serious condition. Seven
persons were injured by the fire in the
Adams house.
Whether the fire started from an ex-
plosion of a lamp or of gas has not been
determined. but when it was first d.s-
covered at ? a. m. the flames seemed to
burst from all parts of the house at
once. Policeman Mcknight was at
Fifth avenue and Sixty-sXth street
when he heard an explosion and saw
the glare of flames in SiXty-seventh
street. He ran to the spot and saw
fire leaping from the upper windows of
the Andrews house and half way 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 waiting any longer than
to arouse the Rothschild family in the
adjoining house, No. 4, he sent in an
alarm.
When the firemen arrived they went
through the Rothschild house and
managed to get in the rear rooms of
the third floor of the Andrews home,
where they found Mrs. st. John and
her 3-year-old son Wallace unconscious
on the floor, their night clothes almost
burned off They were taken into the
RothschiId house. Mrs. St. John died
within few minutes. Her child died
IN the tireman's arms. The firemen
made repeated efforts to get to the
other rooms, but they might as well
have attacked furnace. The building
if saturated with oil could hardly have
burned more fiercely. Like most large
New York dwellings it was high and
narrow and encased on two sides by
solid brick walls, and the effect was
like a great chimney.
All efforts to arouse the inmates in
time to save themselves were fruitlrsS
and aside from Mrs. st. John the only
other persons who got out of the house
alive were the two servants, Jennie
Burns and Alice White, who appeared
at the upper windows terror-stricBen
and, Needless of the cries of .hc 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 upon her
head. Her skull was fractured in sew
eral places. The other woman, when
she saw the fate of her friend, hesitat-
thickened she jumped. She fell on a
rear extension of the building and was
picked up unconscious and severely in
jured.
While the fire in the Andrews house
was raging great clouds of sparks were
carried with the wind and n brand flew
into an open window of the home oe
Albert J. Adams. 1t caught in a cur
tain and instantly the room was ahlaZr.
4 servant at the window Is thought to
have ben Mary Laughnan. for her dead
body was found later. Tightly claspcd
in her arms was the family dog. When
the Adams house caught fire Il num-
Der of the policemen and tiremcn
gained an entrance and got the Adams
family out without serious injury.
The servants We're frantic IN their
efforts to escape, and Mary MaIluy and
Minnie Bogue jumped from the rear of
the fourth floor to the eNtensrCE. from
which they were taken down. Nellie
Quinn was cut off on the fourth tloCr
and appearing at a frCnt wiadow. put
her band over her eyes and Jumped. as
she thought, to the ground. but in.
stead landed on the roof Of the bay
window, one story below and lay there
stunned. Policemen Louis c. Wagner,
McIncrnev and McGill saw the woman
spring and, running inrO the house at
No. ). went - he fourth door. Wan-
ner was held by the heels and made IL
thrilling rescue of the woman. The
firemen confined the fire in this house
to the third ,,"d fourth ho)rs.
4 2I-Eour Bike Race.
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