The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-11-02


Two Ruled, 0ae Mortaily Injured
and Many sevoreIy-The Bowery I'm
Ashes-Finmes Spread RapidIy-Fire,
mon Handicapped by Lack of Water.
New York, Nov LIN a blaze that
baffied the firemen seven hours to-day
the Bowery at Coney Island was again
laid in ashes. Two lives so far are re-
ported to be lost, one man mortally in
jured and score of others hurt. Three
hundred buildings are destroyed, five
hundred persons made homeless and
more than $1,000, 900 damage done How
many more dead were in the ruins was
not known tonight. The casualty list
then was as follows:
The dead-Lizzie Stein, six years old;
unidentified negro.
Mortally injured-Albert Reuben, dy-
ing in Kings County hospital.
Severely injured Thomas Boyle, Mrs.
H. Dexter, Lizzie Granger, James MUIR
ray, Mary Gregor, James Smith, Sadie
Pehers, Mrs. George Watson, Thomas
Zeltzman, fireman; George Gorind and
Fitzgerald Kennedy. roundsman, in
jrred while rescuing.
1t was fire marked by rescue, not
by the police, but by citizens. before it
had been an hour under way, the police
doing nothing more than trying to keep
the fifty thousand sightseers out of
danger. Reserves from all the pre-
cincts within ten miles were brought
there, while Deputy Commissioners Eb-
stein and Piper took charge. The fire
engines found it impossible to get in
action for nearly four hours
The alarm came from the Hippo
drome, low frame building, used in
summer for merry -go-round. The
fremen thought it would all be over
in moment. but the blaze had gained
headway. 1t crept under the building,
under the raised street around the pill
ing and ten minutes later the Alba
tross hotel was afiame From that time
ION, while alarm after alarm brought
every fireman. within ten miles, the
fire seemed to jump from walk to walk
ana from flimsy building to flimsy
building.
With the lack Of water the fire had
4 the forests of wooden structures at its
mercy and all they could be done was
to save life is possible and furniture
Everything portable was carried out
and soon Surf avenue for blocks was
4 impossible because of the barriers Of
household goods. weeping women arl6
1 children and complaining men.
The burned area extended from Til
/ you's walk south to Jones walk, where
A ca brick wall saved the rest of the re.
sort and from the Bowery to the ocean
a distance of seven blocks. For two
blocks the flames cut a swath westward
of the Bowery. reaching to Surf ave
nte, the principal thoroughfare of thu
resort
In all this territory but two build
lings were standing tonight untouched
although all around them was a vast,
of smokinS timbers, masses Of bricl
and twisted iron. half destroyed chin
neys and wrecked pillars. Those twt
buildings, both of frame, oddly enough
stood at the intersection Of the stree
on which the two finest buildings alon,
the Bowery stood. These were the Mu
sic. hall. of Frank +. Henderson AM
the dancing pavilion Of Louis Stauch
both entirely destroyed.
4 Henderson's place. elected two year
! ago, was Of steel and brick cost $3.50,
Z 600. Its exterior was supposed to b
fireproof. Stauch's pavilion, just a
strongly built, was valued at liz
sum. 1
The fire on spreading from Hender
sons concert hall and Stauch's dancin
pavilion licked up one after another o
the small buildings. dance halls an
Raines law hotels. Most of them ha
i, ltentans. who lived on the island tn
year round and about five hundred peo
pie were turne dout of their homes.
Il The center of the line where the fir
, lay thickest was the Bowery, narroy
board walked alley thoroughfare dedi
, Gated to cheap dance halls and sid
shows, The roofs Of these fiimsy strue
| lures were, in most instances, of tarre
: paper. Caught by the rapid-runnin
: fire, in quick succession they ignite6
! f1ared at height and then collapsed
a great dust of sparks which We're car
, ried on to the row of like buildings.
+ Two men, Frank Conley, a salesman
and Peter A. Skelly, bartender, ar
under arrest, suspected of knowing til
cause of the fire. They had been see
passing in and out of the frame buil6
| ing in which the blaze was first seel
Although they deny that they are at a
responsible, it is thought carelessly
!, thrown cigarette stub or half-smoke
cigar may tell the tale.
= shipptug News.