New-York tribune., 1901-02-27
FIRE IN THE STRATHMORE.
THE REV. ROBERT COLLYER AND OTHERS
TAKE TO THE FIRE ESCAPES-AN
OFFICIOUS SURGEON.

The Strathmore apartment house, at Broadway
and Fifty-second-st.. was badly damaged by fire
and water last evening. The building is Of brick
with stone trimmings. nine stories high
The fire started in the apartments Of Mrs. j.
W Fiske on the seventh floor. The members Of
the family, consisting Of Mrs. Fiske. her and
mother Mrs. c. n. Gould, We're away at the
time. One OF the servants smelled smoke. and
on opening door of the library driven
back by the flames, which burst from the room.
She and another servant sounded an alarm
through the house. and fed by a rear fire escape.
In the mean time other tenants in the house,
who had heard the cries of the women, out
into the Railways and made their way down the
stairs or the elevated car. The janitor,
Charles L. Lacotele. who one OF the
lower floors. was one of the flrst to near the
warning shouts of the women He snatched up
an extinguisher and made his way up the stairs
to fight the flames but was driven back by the
heat He then rune in an alarm from a street
box.
ON the eighth floor of the house lives the Rev.
Roher, CoIIver Of the Church Of the Messiah.
with his son. nephew and maid. Last evening
they wera entertaining Mr. and Mrs Roberts.
friends It took the aged pastor only moment
TO realize that escape by the halls was out Of
the question. and he led the members Of his
household and his guests to the fire escape, down
which they climbed to safety. He said after
ward that his escape a narrow one. and
that if he had been two minutes later he and his
family must have perished.
Mr. and Mrs Randolph Ballou, whose apart
ments were on the seventh floor. where the fire
originated at once sought the fire escape, with
their servant Just as they reached the first
steps Mrs Ballou recalled that her pets, canary
bird and parrot. had been left behind She
told her husband He returned to the rooms. Sc
cured the two birds and succeeded in getting
them out by the staircase. Mrs. Ballou and
the servant continued down the fire escape.
Three alarms We're sent in, and it required
an hour of hard fighting before the dremen
could control the flames. which practically
destroyed the three upper floors. The Coyer
library a valuable collection of books it *
thought, consumed. The damage Is esti-
mated at $4,000. which is covered by insurance
The Strathmore is owned by the Hobart estate
of California The fire is believed to have been
caused by lamp in Mrs. Fiske's library. The
tenants who were burned out took refuge in the
Hotel Lincoln. near by.
While working with other members Of his
company on the eighth floor Of the building in
washing down Joseph Mccarthy. a fireman.
thirty y-fve years old. attached to Engine Com
pany No. 26. in West Thirty-seventh-st. be
tween Seventh and Eighth aves. fell from the
eighth floor to the fifth floor. He picked up
bleeding from ugly wound on the head and
had received a fracture Of the right leg. Lieu
tenant Malley. of the company. sent fireman to
summon ambulance from Roosevelt Hos
pital. Among the crowd surrounding the build
ing was DR.. Catherwood. of No ~ West Fifty
eighth-st When the physician learned that
fireman had been injured he volunteered to at
tend him. and, with the water running in al
most a stream from the upper floors. ascended
the stairs to the fifth floor
Patrolman Conway, of the West Forty-sev-
enth-st station. sent to Roosevelt Hospital for
an ambulance and il soon arrived According
TO the police. the surgeon i'm charge when in
formed that the injured fireman was on the fifth
floor refused to enter the building and ordered
the patient to he brought downstairs to him
The police asked him to go upstairs but they
saw the surgeon replied: Il am in supreme au-
tboritv here and my orders must he obeyed'
The police say they told the surgeon that an
other physician upstairs attending the man.
bu, no absolutely refused 10 enter Battalion
Chief Rinns then sent his driver Frederick
Deisroth 10 ask the ambulance surgeon To at
tend the man. hut he again refused 10 enter the
building.
Mccarthy then carried TO the first floor
and the surgeon was again asked To enter the
nlace Again he refused according to the police
Some one took the stretcher from the ambu-
lance and the injured fireman was placed on il
and attended by DIR. CatherWood and other phy-
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