The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-30
MET DEATH IN THE SMOKE
SISTER ALOYSTUS OF SACKED
 HEAHT CONVENE.
Suffucated I'm a Fire nt the Convent Last Night-Called for Help From Third Story Wtnd0w--OriSin Of the Fire Unknovn-Damaget to the Buti"- ing About $9,OOO.

Third Story Window Origin of the
 Fire Unknown-Damage to the Build
 ing About $9,OOO.
 Sister Aloysius, teacher in the seV-
 enth grade of the Sacred Heart paro-
 chial school, and one of the sisters or the Sacred Heart convent, met death by suffocation in a fire which occurred in the convent on Columbus avenue late last evening" The fire broke out about
 103o last night and at that hour an
 alarm was rung from box No. 161 at the corner of Putnam and Liberty streets.
 was rung from the same box, the ire
 having gained such start before the first alarm was rung that Chief Fancher
 saw that more companies would be
 needed than those which responded to the first alarm. The second alarm at tracted thousands of people to the scene of the fire. The crowd surged up to the | building but owing to the excellent
 work of the police the people were kept
 back so that they did not interfere with
 the work of the tirement.
 The fire originated in the la'ndry room of the convent located in the base
 ment in the southwest corner oT the
 building What started it is unknown. | A dumb waiter shaft, which extends from the laundry to the third floor made a chimney draft up which the flames and smoke poured to the top floors of
 the building. The kitchen which is on the first floor just over the laundry was completely gutted and the interior of the whole southwest corner of the build ing was burned out
 There were in the convent at the time
 the fire broke out twenty sisters and | some of these ran to the parish house and gave the alarm to Father McKeon and Father Fitzgerald, who sent ser want to the box at the corner of Liberty and Putnam streets to pull the alarm. About the same time the cries of the sisters at the windows of the convent
 were heard by Hugh McGuire, a young l man, who was in Keenans undertaking office just across the avenue. Mcclure ran to Mo- Is house on Howard avenue and gave the alarm there. The re- | spOnse of the fire department was prompt and this alone saved the build 1 ing from total destruction. The laun- dry and kitchen were veritable furnaces l by the time the firemen arrived, but | they. managed to confine the flames to the one corner of the building until they were extinguished, this latter being ren- dered especially difficult because of the draft furnished by the dumb waiter | shaft, The loss occasioned by the dam- age to the building will be about $9,00O. | The convent was erected about two | years ago at a cost of $4000O. The building is fully insured
 | One of the first things that the fire men did after reaching the scene of the fire was to go through the building and inquire if all the inmates were out
 They were assured that all had left the building, but only a few moments later Sister Aloysius appeared at rear win dow at the east side of the third floor and called to Father F'itzgerald who was standing in the yard below: Send help to me or I will suffocate" Father Fitzgerald called to her to lie down on the floor and hastily informed the fire l men that sister was still in the build ing. A ladder was quickly placed to the window where Sister Aloysius had ap- peared and Lieutenant Redmond of steamer No. 1 mounted the ladder and | entered the room which was filled with | thick black smoke. Redmond looked | about but could not see the woman He | then returned to the ground and it was | thought that Sister AloysiuS had made | her way to the front of the building, | where the smoke was not so thick and had descended the front stairway and escaped
 Search was made for her outside She could not be found and Redmond and' Fireman Miller of steamer No 1 entered the building to search for her, accompa- | nied by Charles Rour1e, the son of the janitor of the building. They first look ed in her own room, and not finding her there went to the rear room at the win dow of which she had appeared and called for help. The room was so filled with smoke that it was impossible to see but finally young Rourke stumbled over something and called to the fremen. They sroped about and found Sister Aloysius lying on the floor by the win dow. Her head and the upper part of her body were under a chair and the blinds of the window which had been broken in by the ladder were lying across her feet.
 She was dragged out and carried to the parish house near by. She was still alive and Dr. William J. Sheehar was summoned. She was past all medi- cal help, however and expired within few minutes, the other sisters of the convent being in the room helping to resuscitatc her when she diel.
 The room in which she was found was the rear room along a hall which ex- 1 tends the length of the building on the | third floor, and in the opposite corner from that in which the fire ragged the 1 fiercest. Her own room was about | half way up the hall and on the oppo- site side of the hall from the room in l which she was found. Her own room ! was not so filled with smoke as was the | one in which she was suffocated and | she might easily have reached the front ] stairs from her own room and escaped | It is thought that she left her own room and went to the rear of the building l where the fire was, to see if the sisters 1 who roomed there were safely out, and | was overcome by the smoke while look |, of-+,-