The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-13
ONE MANS FATAL LEAP FROM A
WINDOW
THIRTEEN BODIES TAKEN FROM RUINS
Several Children Among the Victims. The
Small Rooms and Narrow Passages
Prove Death Traps When the
Terrified Inmates, rush to
ESCAPE. Arrested on
Suspicion.

New 1ork, Marcn lZ-FOurteen per-
sons lost their lives, two persons were Sc
siously injured and many others lightly
burned in fire in Newark this morning.
The firemen 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
hospital. One family was wiped out ON
pletely and of another only the father
lives and he in the city hospital. whore
it is believed he will die.
The list of dead and injured follows:
BoLDI ,NrNz1ATA, 45 years DID, wife OF SAL
vatorc Bold
BOLDI, TERESA, years old, daughter of Sal
vatore Bod
CASTILLO. ANGELA, % years old, wife OF ug-
genio castillo.
CASTILLO BENNINITA, 4 wears old daughter
of Uggeno castillo.
CASsILLo, ANTONIO. years old. son of
Casillo, Frank, 2la years old, son Of Uggenio
castillo.
CAsIlLo. CARMINIA, one year old, daughter
OF Cggenio castillo.
PALMISANO, ANTONIO. 35 years old.
PALMIsANo, sEBAsTlANA, wife ef the An
tfono Paimisano.
PALNlSANO, GUJSEPPA, : wears old, daughter
PALMlsANO. NlrNZIATA one year old, daugi.
ter Of antonio Palmisano.
Hospital of fractured skull.
Unidentified body of child about years old
Seriously injured:
BOLDI SALVATORE, burned about hantls in
escaping from the building.
CASTILLO, IGGENlO, at City Hospital, suf
fering from contusions sustained by jumping from
window.
The building in which the fire broke out
was veritable fire trap. 1t was old, OF
frame construction and extended two
stories above the ground floor. Until
three or four years ago the structure had
been used as n church, but it was con-
verted into tenement. The lower floor.
fronting in so, 50, and 81 Fourteenth Ave-
nue., was occupied by three stores and the
upper portion OF the building was divided
into 20 living rooms. AS nearly as can be
learned the structure was occupied by
ten families. all Italians. Two of the oc-
cupants Vito CredanZa and one other fam
lily kept boarders and though the total
population of the rookery could not be
definitely ascertained during the excite
ment attending the fire there are said to
have been 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 incendiary origin and they have
arrested Vito Credanza on suspicion.
There was a disorderly card game in one
of the rooms that lasted well into the
morning. Credanza a participant
and is said to have made violent threats
against his fellow players. A few min
utes before five o'clock. everyone in the
building was awakened 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 fiercely, cutting Off
the egress from the upper floor on which
six families live. 1t also cut off the es-
cape by the door for those who lived on
the floor below this Those who could
made for the windows From these they
leaped or dropped. The whole neighbor-
hood was awake in an instant and from
the burning building came agonzng
screams and calls for help. From the
basement and ground floor the inmates
of the building poured out naked, or al
most so. From the upper story men and
women 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 a
few minutes because the fire rushed
through every room in the frail build
ing within ten minutes.
There was fearful excitement about the
burning building. Men, women and chill
dren who escaped from the burning build
ing rushed about almost naked, looking
fer their relatives. For a time IL was
thought there were many more lost
than the events later proved, because
several senseless naked people were
picked up by neighbors and carried in
doors. Thus fathers and mothers missed
their children and rushed screaming
about.
The fire lasted only few minutes. The
search for the dead began within twenty
minutes after the alarm was sounded. so
quickly was the fire conquered.