The Indianapolis journal., 1902-10-28
He Occupied n Room Over j. w.
Smith a Sons Bakery on Fort
Wayne Avenue.
FATE OF A LITTLE CHILD
JOSEPH ROsENZwEIG'S DAUGHTER
BURNED FATALLY.
During the Absence OF Her Parents
the Little One Played with
Lighted Papers.


came in volumes George Graham, seventy
five years old. rooming at S25 Fort Wayne
avenue. was overcome last night and left
to perish in the sheets of flame which later
followed. When found the body of Graham
was burned to a crisp. reclining on the
ashes of mattress that he had occupied
The floor had partially burned away and
the iron bedstead, blackened and twisted
out of shape, was ready to fall to the
rooms below stairs when members of the
fire department. learning that man was
yet in his room above, made efforts to
bring him to safety. The fire loss was
insignificant. not more than $1,000 being
the damage to the bakery Of j. w. Smith &
Son.
Graham the tenant of a room
the second floor Of the frame building on
Fort Wayne avenue, and occupied an ordi-
nary sleeping room in the of the
building. He had been living there for five
years, according to the neighbors. and
tired to the room at o'clock last night
after taking his supper at a restaurant on
Fort Wayne avenue. The last person that
saw Graham was colored woman who
lives close by and she says she noticed
that when he started UP the front stair
way few minutes after o'clock he car
ried a newspaper. which he is supposed
to have read. as had always been his Gus
tom before retiring. At 10 o'clock light
was no longer visible at his window. He
Is supposed to have gone to sleep about
that time.
ALARM OF FIRE.
The alarm of fire at IL 80 startled the
neighborhood of the bakery. On the ar
rival Of the fire department the employees
of the bakery and a number of negroes
living in the neighborhood were on the
street. crying. yelling and gesticulating,
and trying to inform the crew of the chem
ical from headquarters that a man was
asleep I'm the burning building. Smoke
was pouring from the rooms on the sround
| floor and also from the windows above
| The stairway leading from Fort Wayne
avenue was clouded with smoke Efforts
were made by Capt. John Hunt, of head
quarters, and Captain Newman, of the
salvage corps. to ascend these stairs to
rescue the man supposed to be sleeping
there. They found their ascent to be diff
cult on account of the volume of smoke
| Captain Hunt sent a number of fremen to
the rear of the building in the hope that
they might be able to reach Graham
room by a fiimsy. frame stairway When
| the fremen reached that spot flames were
bursting from the rear of the building,
frustrating the attempts they had in mind.
In the meantime Captain Hunt and Cap
tain Newman succeeded in cropping their
way up the front stairway through the
dense smoke. Grahams room was in front
| of the landing of the stairway and the
firemen had little difficulty in finding IT,
as the location had been explained by the
excited neighbors the sidewalk below
They found the door locked. The two fire.
men threw their weight against the door
causing 1t to give way. Smoke and flame
barred their progress momentarily. Fire
man Whelan, who followed. raised a side
window, which allowed the smoke to clear
away. Then could be seen the charreC
body Of Graham, lying partially on the bee
and stretched half way to the floor. Cap
tain Newman Immediately called to hi:
men below and ordered up stretcher, or
which Graham's body was placed. Tn.
city ambulance was summoned and tn,
body was taken to the city morgue.
HOW THE FIRE STARTED.
How the fire started has not been clearl,
explained. 1t is the supposition of mem
bers of the fire department that the over
heated ovens in the bakerooms of tn,
Smith bakery caused an accumulation O.
heat and the rafters were fired by com
bustion. This is corroborated by the burn
ing away of the rafters and flooring ii
Grahams room, which is directly over tn,
Il ovens.
The bakeroom and storeroom wer
stocked with bread and cakes, which ha,
, recently been drawn from the ovens. TIL
bread and cakes were charred and burne.
and the racks holding them damaged s.
} that it was seen that a fierce fire ha,
ragged for a short time in the bakery.
The loss to the bakery on stock is $50
I and 20 the frame building about 500. TIL
, fire was considered stubborn one to figh
on account of the volumes of smoke whicl
hampered the work of the firemen.
George Graham, who was burned I
death, was seventy-five years old and we
known in this city. He had worked at tn
Blind Institute a florist for thirty-fiy
years and had roomed on Fort Wayne ave
nue. for the last five years. son an
is on Fifty-eighth street and the daughte
has been a teacher in the Indianapolis pub
lie schools for several years. Graham, al
though an old man, was active and ex
tremely temperate. He had earned tn
I friendship of all his neighbors. To person
passing the Blind Institute he was we
known. He was always at work on tn
: flower beds of the institution grounds an
T his face was well known to many of tn
, residents of that neighborhood.