The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-02
Fire Lasted Twenty Minutes, Only One
Person Was Injured and the Loss
Was but $1,000.
PANICs at THE FIRE ESCAPES
MANY THRILLING REsCUEs BY THE
DEPARTMENT WORKERS.
Many Persons sunocated in the Fierce
Struggle to Escape-Most of the
Victims Were Italians.

NEW YORK. Nov. L--Twenty-one men.
three women and a ten-months-old babe
were burned to death or suffocated in a
IRE that started early this morning In the
blouse Of All Nations" a fve-story tene-
ment house at AS Eleventh avenue, and
which the police and coroner believe to
have been OF ~incendiary origin.
Some of the peculiar features Of the dis
aster, in addition to the startling loss or
life, are that the fire was practically ex-
tinguished in twenty minutes, that the po-
lice could learn Of but one person being
injured. other than those who lost their
lives. and that the property loss was only
5000.
The dead are mostly Italians. They are:
Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Rossi. Justine
Rossi. Nicholas Nogal. Pietro Deresi. An
tonic Brocera. Muculetta Fingiguerro. Pr
momena Doresi, a baby, Antonio Villco,
Francis Villmo, Sarah O'Toole, Antonio
D'Angelo. Pasqualo Narcotic. Frank Mas
trenio. Mattio Vendrano. jose Muslin or
Mustiole, Pletra Donyski, Joseph Zorro
witch. Frank Delmonio. Antonio Berolich.
Antonio Ucilini, Giuseppe Cappelli, three
unidentified Italian laborers.
The only person injured, so far as can
be learned. is Mary Jane Quinn, who was
burned about the face and hands and Sc
verely bruised by ieaping from a second
floor fire escape to the ground.
In several apartments in the tenement
Halloween parties were in progress and the
guests at these added greatly TO the num-
Der Of persons in the house and made the
rush and jam to escape more than it or
dinarily would have been. Although plen-
ffful1u nroyfAad NTH Gra .caapa. f~oxs II
rear. escape here was cut of a few min
utes after the fire started by the bodies of
the dead becoming wedged in the openings
leading to the ladders.
The fire had been burning for some
minutes before 1t was discovered. 1t had
started in the basement. and, rushing up
ward. had attacked the stairway leading
TO the apartments. In a short space OF
time the flames had SO enveloped the stair
way that egress from the building by it
was impossible. The house, from third to
NTH floors, was destroyed. At windows.
front and rear. bodies OF men and women
We're damned, showing that a desperate
struggle 10 get free had resulted In the COM
plete choking OF these exits to the fire
escapes and had been the cause of a num-
Der OF the inmates being suffocated. Lying
on a bed alongside a window at the rear
of the fourth floor the firemen found the
bodies OF five men. Each had clutched the
oAt0 AC4N ~ ILL All Gil &DQGdNOL III JUS
him away in order to get to the fire escape
outside. The features OF the men were dis
f0rted, some with rage, others with agony,
and in two instances the men had gripped
each other so hard that blood had been
drawn and had run out over their hands.
On the third floor, in an apartment where
q Halloween party was being held, John
O'Tooie. one OF the occupants, started TO
the street. He was met by a volume of
smoke as he opened the door. He ran to
the fire escape, followed by all those in
the fiat with the exception of his mother,
whose charred body later was found lying
at the entrance to the apartment. O'Toole
and the others escaped.
When the firemen reached the scene there
was a mass OF flame bursting through the
middle Of the roof, while the air was filled
with screams of the women and the curses
Of the men. Many daring rescues were
made by the fremen, who at times had to
use violence in their attempts 10 olsen
tangle the mass of writhing human beings.
struggling in vain efforts TO reach safety
from the crowded fire escapes. One fire.
man climbed to the fourth floor, where a
window was filled with a mass of people,
jammed in and fighting to get out. He
struck the heads of all the men he could
see with his fist and they fell back. He
below three women and a baby. Another
fireman performed a similar feat and
rescued two girls from the fourth floor.
Life nets played q prominent part in the
work OF rescue. The firemen dropped men
and women. dead and alive. from one
floor 10 another and finally the men stand
ing on ladders on the first floor let them
fab into the nets held by policemen and
firemen In the street.
The building was known as the House of
All Nations" because of the different ma
tionalities OF its tenants.