New-York tribune., 1903-07-05
ELEVATED SHOPS BURN.
THREE ARE DESTROYED.
Fireman Falls from Ladder Skull
Man Be Fractured.

Three shops of the Manhattan Railway Com
pany were totally destroyed, with their con-
tents. by a fire which broke out about 4 D. m.
yesterday. According to official of the COM
pany the damage is between 100000 and $780,
OoO the principal loss being fifteen motor cars
valued by the company at $4,000 apiece. and
twenty passenger cars. all of which were a total
loss. Albert E. Robbins, chief clerk of the
electrical department. thinks irecrackers caused
the blaze. while others say that oiled waste
caught fire.
f. w. Chapman, a watchman at Lexington
ave- and Ninety -eighth-st., discovered the fire.
The shops are situated in block bounded by
Lexington and Park aves., Ninety-eighth and
Ninety-ninth SITS, and there are several of them.
all numbered. Chapman saw flames coming
from shop No. 2. known as the workshop, and
Immediately informed Patrolman Gorham. of
the East One-hundred- ed-and-fourth-st station,
who turned in alarm.
BY the time the firemen got to work on shop
No. the flames had eaten their way to shop
No. 1. known as the storage shop. To the rear
of No. 1 is No. g. known the mills and car
penter shop. In it was from seven thousand 10
ten thousand feet of lumber.
The fire was confined to these three shops
though there was danger at one time that the
paint shop would also be gnited. 1t contained
hundreds of gallons of oil and other infam-
mable material
In shop No. were stored fifteen motor
cars, and in the storage shop twenty passenger
cars. These burned fiercely as the lumber
and it was almost impossible for the fremen to
get close enough to fight the blaze.
On the south side of Ninety-eighth- are
number of fathouses, and these were more or
less damaged by the fire, the cornices being
melted from Nos 12S and 13O and all the panes
of glass being cracked The police ordered the
tenants out.
1t was impossible for the firemen to save the
three shops their efforts were confined to
saving the other shops, and to preventing the
flames from spreading to the barns Of the Inter
urban Street Railway Company, on the other
side of Ninety y-ninth-st.
Firemen NJ J. Dougherty and Matthew Cum
mings, of Truck No. %. were overcome by
smoke and revived. Michael Howell, of TruEk
No. p. was ordered to place ladder against
the walls of shop No. and carry line of hose
up to play on the flames. AS he ran up the lad
der 1t slipped and Howell fell to the ground,
sustaining concussion of the brain and a pos
sible fracture of the skull He was hurried to
Harlem Hospital
The police had much difficulty in handling the
enormous crowds that thronged the block in
which the shops were. Some of the spectators
were inclined to give trouble. One. a colored
man, Edward Johnson, of No. 1,760 Third-ave..
fell over a line of hose and broke his kneeCap.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital.
Another spectator, Edward Roeder, of No.
1243 Thrd-ave,, was standing in the doorway
of No. 12S East Ninety-eighth-st. Fire lines
were formed and he was ordered away by
Patrolman Hebrank. He refused to go, the po-
liceman says and locked himself in the vesti-
bule of the house Hebrank had to smash the
plateglass window to get at his man. who then.
it is alleged, tried TO assault the officer. He
taken to the East One -hundred-an -fourth-st.
station,