New-York tribune., 1900-12-14
TENEMENT FIRE DANGERS.
COMMISSION REPORTS on NEED Oh
ESCAPES AND LAXITY IN ENFoRC-
ING THE LAW

The Tenement House Commission OF 1900 has rss
ceived a report on tenement house fire escapes
which probably will have place in the report that
the Commission is expected 20 make 20 the Lssts-
lature next month. The report Is based on sx-
aminatons in the Seventeenth Ward Of Msnh&s-
tan and a part OF the Seventeenth Ward OF Brook
lyn II begins with the following statement:
The law since Iss2 has required that all tenement
those erected thereafter. should be provided with
adequate fire escapes. II would seem that In this
eials should have been able TO Il that an the
teEeme1t houses erected prior to 1852 were equipped
Win adequate hre escapes, and certainly that
new tenement houses should have been erected
thousands OF such buildings in this ctty TO-DAY with
totally inadequate means OF escape in case Of IRE.
There are 5000 tenement houses IN the city. the
report says and II has been impossible for the In
spectors OF the Commission examine all OF thsm-
There 2S7 tenement houses IN the Seventeenth
Ward of Manhattan. extending from Rivington-st-
TO Fourteenth-st and from Third-ave. to Avenue
b. The report says that 653 OF the houses were
found without fire escapes on the front walls. and
ninety-eight had no fire escapes whatsoever some
OF the houses contain from eight 70 ten families
each and in the ninety-eight houses lived s5s
families. about two thousand persons, without
adequate means OF escape in case OF are. In 1Ss
houses the floors OF the fire escape balconies wers
Of wood. so that in case fire broke out at the
rear these balconies would be practically useless.
Only ninety OF these buildings had stairs connect
ing the balconies. The others had simply vertical
ladders. The balconies Of more than half the ars
escapes found badly incumbered by house.
hO4,4 goods
In a part OF the Seventeenth Ward OF Brooklyn
the inspectors found 2sS tenement houses without
fire escapes notwithstanding that 242 OF these v>rs
wooden buildings where the chance for escape IN
case of fire Is almost nothing. OF these zG wooden
tenement houses 19s contained three families each.
. contained four families each, IT contained
six families each. and house contained many
as eight families. making total OF 07 families. or
4O35 persons living in wooden tenement houses
without fire escapes OF any kind.
OF an apartment house in Lexngton-ave. tns
report says;
This is a seven story building. arranged for four
teen families and occupied at the present time BY
thirteen families II Is not hreprOOf and has no nre
escapes Of any kind. and the stairs are OF WOOD
moreover II Is connected at different stories with
q storage warehouse. a building in which the dan
ger fire Is very great This Is but one type OF
a number OF buildings found throughout the city.
The report declares that the enforcement OF the
fire escape the city lis OF the most LAX and
Inefficient kind It says Of the failure to enforce the
provisions regarding membranes on IRE escapes
that the responsibility is divided among depart
ments charged with different duties and that when
arrests been made the police magistrates have
been loath to fine or tmprlson a poor person Tor
such offence. especially II the poor person -
foreigner used TO ways OF living and often
totally unfamiliar with the law