The sun., 1903-12-08
MANY Y~RRSCUED AT A FIRE.
CHILDREN DROPPED INTO THE
ARMS OF SPECTATORS.
Man With His wife C1ingins to Him Slides
Down = ROpe-WOman Swung From
window TO Fire Escape-IrOn
bars Broken Down to Save Two.

Down . ROpe-WOman SwlIng From
window TO Fire Escape-IrOn
Bars Broken Down to Save Two.
The motorrnan OF a Sixth avenue elevated
train rounding the curve from Ffty-third
street into Ninth avenue, few minutes
before 2 o'clock yesterday morning, saw
smoke pouring out OF the basement OF
Thomas r. Crosss Wyanoke Hotel, on the
northeast corner He stopped his train
and footed his whistle till heads began to
appear at the windows
Most OF the fire apparatus in the district
were busy at a wagon factory fire In Fifty
third street, near Broadway. and some one
ran over to give the alarm. Meanwhile.
the tenants In the five story Wyanoke
building were crowding the windows and
piling down the free scapes
Thomas Lee. night foreman in the car
barns at Fifty-fourth street and Jacob
Foster, a fellow employee, were among
the first to reach the building On the
ledge OF a second story window on the
Fifty-third street side they saw woman
about to leap with her two small children.
They shouted to her to drop the children
into their arms. She leaned out as far as
she could and dropped one and then the
other. The men caught them safely and
persuaded the mother to wait for ladder.
Lee had scarcely set down the child he
caught when the end OF rope dropped
from the third story struck him on the
shoulder. Looking up he saw man and
woman preparing to descend, He shouted
to them to wait. but the man paid no at
tention. Lee called Foster and Rounds
man McGrath of the " est Forty-seventh
street station, and the three stood ready
at the foot Of the rope. The man started
down with the woman clinging to him,
her arms around his neck. He went down
hand over hand for the first dozen feet.
and then began to slide. faster and faster
The three pairs Of arms waiting for him at
the bottom broke the fall, and he and his
wife escaped injury.
Engine 2 was the first at the fire.
but when it arrived the building was
afire on every floor. Driver McGann saw
a woman and child at fourth story window
four feet from the fire escape. The glow
OF fire could be seen in the room behind
her He threw down his lines without
waiting to help connect the engine and
he found r. E. Ganter Of 0l0 East Fourteenth
street urging the woman to spring. for the
fire escape. She hadn't the nerve. McGann
leaned over the railing while Ganter held
his legs and lifted the child out of her arms.
Then he reached over again. and, grabbing
the woman around the waist, swung her
into the fire escape. She was Mrs. Runyon,
and the child was her fve-year old daughter
Lena.
On the same floor lived James McCauley,
his wife and five children. McGann and
Ganter brought them all out. The men Of
Engine 2 brought three girls down from
the third floor on scaling ladders.
Capt. Duffy Of Truck 81 found Philip
Seberger, a 250-pounder, unconscious on
the third floor. He brought him down
with the help OF one Of his men.
Roland Burr. the janitor, and his vito
were cut of in their rooms in the basement.
Bars on the windows prevented their escape
till the fremen smashed their way in with
sledges.
Policemen Sharpe and Flagler Of the
West Forty-seventh street station rescued
Mrs. G. ". johnson from a second story
window on the Ninth avenue side by climb
ing along the ledge from the adjoining tene-
ment
After the fire was under control. Capt
Hanley and Foreman McManus Of Engine Q
were overcome by gas. They were brought
around by Roosevelt Hospital surgeon
and went back to work. The building
was gutted.