The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1900-03-15
HOLOCAUST IN A
TENEMENT HOUSE
Fourteen Lives Are Lost In Veritabie
Death Trap.
VICTIMS MOSTLY CHILDREN
Fire Was the Dastardly Work
Of An Incendiary.

Fourteen persons lost their lives,
two persons were seriously injured
and many others slightly burned in
fire in Newark, N. j., at S o'clock
Monday morning. The fremen, after
the flames had been subdued, took
thirteen bodies from the ruins and
while they were thus engaged another
victim of the fire died in the city hos
pital. One family was wiped out COM
pletely and of another only the father
lives and he is in the city hospital,
where it is believed he will die.
The building in which the fire broke
out was veritable fire trap. It was of
frame construction and extended two
stories above the ground floor. Until
three or four years ago the structure
had been used as church, but it was
converted into tenement. The lower
floor, fronting on so, 50 and 81 Four
teenth avenue, was occupied by three
stores and the upper portion of the
building was divided into twenty
living rooms.
As nearly as can be learned, the
structure was occupied by ten families,
all Italians. Two of the occupants,
Vito Credanza and one other family
kept boarders, and though the total
population of the rookery could not
be definitely ascertained during the
excitement attending the frethere were
said to be forty or fifty persons Of
both sexes and all ages in the building
when the fire started.
The police are confident that the
fire was of incendiery origin and they
have arrested Vito Credanza on sus-
picion. There was disorderly card
game in one of the rooms that lasted
we'll into the morning. Credanza was
a participant and is said to have made
violent tharats against his fellow play
ers. A few minutes before 5 o'clock
every one in the building was awaken
ed by the flames.
They found them burning at the
foot of the stairs leading from the first
to the second stories. The hallway
and the stairs were burning fercely,
cutting off the only egress from the
upper floor on which six families lived.
It also cut off the escape by the door
for those who lived in the rear
part of the first floor. Those who
could made for the windows. From
these they lesped or dropped.
The whole neighborhood was awake
in ar instant and from the burning
building came agonizing screams and
calls for help. From the basement
and ground floor the inmates of the
building poured naked, or almost SO.
From the upper story men and wo-
men leaped to the sidewalk. By the
time the fremen reached the scene
the building was wrapped in flames
and those who had not escaped were
dead or doomed. They must have
died within q few minutes for the fire
rushed through every room in the
building within ten minutes.
There was fearful excitement about
the burning building. Men, women
and children who escaped rushed
about almost naked, looking for their
relatives. For time it was thought
there were many more lost than the
events later proved, because several
naked were picked up by neighbors
and carried indoors. Thus fathers and
mothers missed their children and
rushed screaming about.
The fire lasted only a few minutes.
The search for the dead began within
twenty minutes after the alarm was
sounded 80 quickly was the fire con-