Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-11-02
LOSE LIVES IN FIRE
Twenty-Five Meet Death In
Five Story New York Tene-
ment House
HALLOWEEN PARTIES HELD
This Added Greatly to the Number Of
Persons in the House-crush and
Jam to Escape Was Something Ter.
ribIe-Most of the Dead Were Italians
Suspect Ineendiary Origin.
HALLOWEEN PARTIES HELr,

New York Nov. Twenty mer,
three women and 10 month old babe
were burned to death or suffocated Ia
a fire that started early yesterday NOR
ming in the House of All Nations. 4
five-story tenement house at 426 Elev-
enth avenue, and which the police AMI
coroner believe to have been of incen-
diary origin.
Some of the peculiar features of the
disaster, in addition to the startling loss
of life. are that the fire was practic-
ally extinguished in twenty minutes.
that the police could learn of only one
person being injured other than those
who lost their lives. and that the prop
erty loss was only $1,000. The dead are
mostly Italians.
The only person injured so far as
can be learned is Mary Jane Quinn, A
years old, who was burned about the
face and hands and severely bruised
by leaping from the second story fire.
escape to the ground.
III several apartments liz tSAtS
ment Halloween parties were in pro +.
gress, and the guests ut these added
greatly to the number of persons In the
house, and made the crush and jam to
escape more than 1t ordinarily wouli
have been. Although plentifully pro :
vided with fire escapes, front and rear.
escape mere was cut off few minute :
after the fire started by the bodies of
the dead becoming wedged in the open !.
ings leading to the ladders. The fir.
had been burning for some minutes be :
fore it was discovered. 1t had started
in the basement, and. rushing upwards,
had attacked the stairway leading to tn.
apartments. In short space of tim,
the flames had so enveloped the stair.
way that egress from the building By
1t was impossible. The house from th,,
third to the fifth floor was entirely
wrecked.
AT the windows, front and rear, bod !.
les of men and women were damned,
showing that a desperate struggle t,
get free had resulted In the complet,.
choking OF these exits to the fire es.
capes, and had been the cause of ii
number of the inmates being suffocated.
Lying on a bed alongside a window 4,
the rear of the fourth floor the firemeli
found the bodies of five men. Each had
clutched the one next to him in an en-.
deavor to push him away in order t.,
get TO the fire escape outside. The fea,,
lures of the men We're distorted. some
with rage. others with agony. ana iii
two instances, the men had griped each
other SO hard that blood had beer.
drawn and had run over their hands.
Many daring rescues were made By
the firemen, who at times had TO us
violence in their efforts TO disentangl.
the mass Of human beings struggling III
vain efforts to reach safety from thu.
crowded fire escapes. One fireman.
climbed to the fourth floor where Il
window was filled with a. mass OF PEG.
pie, damned in and fighting to &c
out. He struck the heads of all the merl
he could see with his fist and they fell
back. He then handed down to the fire.
ulen on ladders below three women and
baby. Another fireman performed q
similar feat and rescued two girls from
the fourth floor.
Life nets played prominent par
in the work of rescue. The firemer
dropped men and women dead and alive
from one floor to another. and finall,
the men standing on ladders on the first
floor let them fall to the nts held b.,
policemen and firemen in the streets.
The building is known as the House
of all Nations" because of the differ.
ent nationalities of its tenents.