The sun., 1903-05-28
DEATH IN lNCENDIARY FIRE.
FOUR OF ONE FAMILY KILLED
IN HARLEM TENEMENT.
Another Tenant Who Saw the FirebuE and
Chased Hin Seriously Burned-Firo
Set In Ground Floor HAll-Policeman
Saves Two Women and Six Children.

Another Tenant Who Saw the FirebuG and
Chased Hin Seriously Burned-Firo
Set In Ground Floor HAll-Policen1an
Saves Two Women and Six Children.
The wife and three children OF George
Wandling, an express driver, were killed
in an incendiary fire which was started
about daybreak yesterday in the five.story
tenement 200 West 135th street.
Wandling and his surviving child. Walter.
years old, were severely burned In max
ing their escape. and Victor johnson. a
tenant on the ground floor, rear, who dis
covered the frebug at work. is lying at
the Harlem Hospital In q precarious con-
dihon. Several other tenants were slightly
burned or bruised in their fight down the
fire escapes.
There are four apartments on each floor,
two on either side Of a narrow hall running
the length Of the building All the twenty
apartments were occupied. The stair we'll
is on one side Of the hallway in the build
ing's centre, and on the other side are
dumbwaiter and toilet room shafts. prac-
tically making fue the width of the build
ing, from cellar to roof and cutting 1t into
front and rear sections.
johnson, who kept house with his brother
and another man on the ground floor. got
up yesterday morning at o'clock and
went into the hall. He noticed, he says,
a strong odor of kerosene or naphtha,
but the hall was dark and he could
see no one. He stepped into the toilet 70 ON,
and In few moments he says he heard
the front door open and some one walk in.
Then he heard a match struck and saw
fash Of fame.
johnson jumped into the hall, to find
It ablaze on all sides for dozen feet about
the stairway. Through the flames he could
see a man running for the front door He
chased him toward Eighth avenue, His
clothes had ignited az he ran through the
flames At the corner he collapsed, and
Amos White, who was standing in front
of the corner saloon, rolled him over on the
sidewalk quenching the fire In his clothes.
Meantime the firebug had turned into
Eighth avenue and had dashed past Po-
liceman Weiner, who was hurrying UP in
response to the cries of fire and who sup
posed the man was running to- turn In an
alarm. This was the last seen Of him.
William Grup. newsdealer, at the cor,
ner of Eighth avenue and 1s5th street, had
a good look at the firebug. He says he
was Of medium height, very thin. with high
cheek bones, Of dark complexion and mus
taohe and wore black clothes and derby
hat. Johnson's description tallies with
this, and so does the policeman's.
Weiner turned in an alarm and ran into
the house. Access to the upper floors
through the hallway was cut off, but most
by shouts and were swarming down the
fire escapes. Wener went up the fire es-
cape In the rear and carried two women and
six children down in three trips.
When the firemen arrived most of the
tenants in the front Of the house were safe.
In the rear apartments, which We're already
filled with smoke. many were still sleeping,
and flremen and neighbors had busy time
carrying out women and children,
When Fireman koehler OF Engine 80
thick to allow him to get beyond the kitchen
There he found the bodies of Mrs. Wand
ling and Helen, years old: Later the
bodies Of the two other WandlinE ts children @
George. Jr., Q years old, and Charles: who
was s. The father and the surviving
child had been carried unconscious from
the hallway OF the fourth floor. or the
injured johnson is the only one whose
condition is serious.
SUSPICIOUS FIRE IN NEARBY FLATHoUsE.
Philip Heckhouse. the ianitor of the Co.'S
mopolitan apartments at 277 West l34th
street, discovered smoke coming from the
basement about 7:so o'clock last night and
found some rubbish and an old coat ablaze
under the stairway. With the aid Of Will
liam Brueck, a son OF the owner OF the house,
he put out the fire.
Central Off1ce detectives and Fire Mar
shall Freel started an investigation and
they decided that the fire had been set
by a firebug. The rubbish and the coat
had been saturated with some kind Of
liquid.
in the house and they were badly scared
because Of the Thirty y-fifth street fire in the
morning.
Several Central Office detectives and
Assistant Fire Marshal Magilnon had a
conference in the West l25th street station
late last night, after which the Assistant
Fire Marshal said:
4We have come to a definite concusi on
about the fires, but cannot say VIII at 1t ia
Just now