Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-11-05
25 Persisted
Large Number of People Caught
in the Top of a Burn
ing Tenement.
MOSTLY SUFFOCATED
Building Crowded with HalIorc'e n
Partics-Bodics Of Victims Becnmc
WedRed in the Escapes and shut
or Exit-Firemen Made
Many Daring Rescues.
MOSTLY SUFFOCATED

tnfec women ana Al ten months old baby
met death either by sufocation or burns
In fire early to-day in the five story
tenement house at No. 426 Eleventh
avenue, which the police and coroner be-
llcVe to have been OF incendiary origin.
Some Of the peculiar features of the
disaster are that the fire was practically
txtinguished in twenty minutes, that the
police could learn of but one person being
injured, other than those who lost their
lives and the property loss was only 81 900
The dead, who are mostly Italians, are:
Guiseppi Rossi, IS years.
Antonio Rossi, 20 years.
Justine Rossi. q years.
Nicholas Negal, % years.
PictrO Deresi 90 years
Antonio BrOcera, "a years
Mauleta Vingiguerre Deresi, q years.
PhilOmena Deresl babe.
Antonio Nillmo, u years.
Frances Nillmo q years, his wife.
Sarah O'Toole, As years.
Antonio d Angelo, 10 years.
Pasqualc Marotto, n years.
Frank Mastrenio. "A years.
Mattio Vendrano, 40 years.
Jose Mustrim or Mustriolo, 70 years.
PictrO Donyski 30 years.
Joseph Zorowitch. "a years.
Frank Dclmonio. 20 years.
Antonio Barolich, II years.
Antonio tcilini, % years.
Giussepi Capelli. 81 years.
Three unidentified Italian laborers.
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 floor to the ground.
In several apartments in the tenement
Halloween parties We're IN progress and
the guests at these added greatly to the
number of persons in the house and in
creased the crush to escape. Although
the building was plentifuliy provided with
ire escapes, front and rear. escape by
TINS means was cut off a few minutes af-
ter the fire started by the bodies of the
dead which became wedged in the OPEN
ings leading to the ladders The fire had
been burning some minutes before it was
discovered. II had started in the base
ment and rushing upward had attacked
the stairway leading to the apartments
In a few minutes the flames mad enveloped
the stairway. making egress in this di-
rection impossible. The building from the
third to the fifth floor was Quilted.
Al windows, front and rear. bodies OF
men and women We're damned, showing
that the desperate struggle to escape had
bccn the cause of many SuffocationS
Perhaps the most tragic lind the hremcn
made was on bed alongside window
at the rear of the fourth floor where the
bodies of five men lay. Each mad
clutched the man next to him in an en-
deavor to push him aside in order 20
reach the lire escape outside. The fca-
lures of the men We're distorted some with
rage. others with agony and in two in
stances the men had gripped each other
so hard that blood had been drawn.
ON the third floor were found the bodies
of Maculeta Deresi and her baby. The
mother had crawled TO the front window
a .l..1
when she was suffocatod. In her arms
lay the body of her child.
ON the third floor in an a. artment
where Halloween Tarty had been in
progress when the fire started the general
panic, John O'Toole. one of the occu-
pants, started to so 20 the street. He
was met by a volume of smoke as he
opened TIE door He ran 10 the fire
escape, followed by all those in the apart
ment, with the exception of his mother.
whose charred body was found later
lying near the door to the hall. O'Toole
and the others escaped.
When the flremen reached the scene
the names We're bursting through the roof
and the heartrending screams of women
ana the curses of men Hlled the air Many
daring rescucs were made by the tiremen
who ut times had to use violence in their
attempts to quiet the panic stricken hui
man beings, struggling in vain attempts
to reach safety One fireman climbed a
ladder to the second floor and then mount
cd to a fourth floor window, which was
filled with wedge of people each person
fighting to get out. He struck the heads
of all the men he could see with his fist
and they fell back. He then handed down
to the iiromen on ladders below three
women and baby Another fireman per-
formed a similar feat and rescued two
girls from an upper story.
Life nets played a principal part in the
work of rescue. The hremen dropped
men and women, dead and alive, from one
floor to another and finally the men stand
ing on scaling ladders on the first floor
let them fall into the nets. held by police
men and tiremen in the street
The building was known as the house
of all nations because of the many diff
terent nationalties occupying its rooms
ABOUT 400 CARS WRECKED.
Crestline Ohio, Nov. IA car of pow
der exploded here tonight. wrecking
nearly 400 cars. 1t is not known as 10
whether or not there We're any fatalities,
but three persons were seriously hurt.
CORPSE TORN FROM THE COFFIN,
Charlotte, \. c., Nov. Flour per sons
were killed instantly and corpse was
torn from its coffin by the locomotive of
number 80, the fast south-bound passenger
train on the Southern railway, four miles
out from Concord. y. g. to-day. The
people who were killed were in 4 wagon
with the corpse of Mrs. Kate Lewis and
were on the way to neishboring burial
ground. The mules attached to the wagon
turned into the railroad track in fl ont of
the engine.