New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-01-04
TRIES TO BURN BUILDING.
BORES HOLES IN STAIRS.
Incendiary Fills Them svith Oil
Soaked Waste-Ice Hampers
Firemen.


Hampered by piles of snow and Ice the Fire
Department fought all last night an incendiary
fire in the building at Leonard-st. and Broad
way. numbered 345-34T Broadway and owned
by the Weld estate. of Boston The fire was a
hard one to fight, even If the fremen had not
been hampered by the wind and the snow. for
the building is a seven story one in the shape
OF an L. running back $50 feet in L.eonard-st
At $3.50 there was automatic alarm from
the third floor. When the firemen arrived, they
found holes had been bored at five different
points in the stairway and filed with OIL
soaked waste. Piles Of finely cut wood, soaked
In kerosene. had been placed around and scat
tered near by.
The floors OF the corridors and the stairs had
been soaked with kerosene When the doors at
| Nos. - and 30 Leonard st broken in by
the fremen an intense draught was created and
/ the flames shot upward. eating their way
/ through the ceiling and spreading along the oil
soaked passages of the fourth floor. No motive
/ could be found for the deed Of the incendiary
! unless IL was the act Of pyromaniac had
| been done for revenge.
| The first piece OF apparatus TO arrive was en-
! gine No. 81. led by Captain McDermott, who
| smashed in the door. Just before they arrived
! the patrolman post saw flames bursting from
the third floor and sent in a regular alarm.
McDermott and his men fought their way 10
| the third floor in the face OF flames and sitting
{ srnofc In the stairs they discovered the freshly
| bored holes in the risers or the perpendicular
! sides Of the steps up To the seventh floor. All
! the holes were above the third floor. In each
! hole. which was about two and a half inches
| in diameter had been thrust quantities of OIL
/ soaked waste. This had fallen through the
/ stairs and was also scattered up and down and
/ mixed In with piles OF kindling wood
! The offices on the various floors are separated
/ by thin partitions of light wood and glass. In
all the corners Of these partitions the incendiary
had piled his oi-soaked wood and waste.
Leading from pile to pile were trails OF oil to
help the spread OF the flames, The hremen be-
/ gan work on the LeOnard-st. side Of the build
/ ing and cut off the progress of the flames toward
! Broadway saving that end of the building.
| Acting Chief Kruger arrived soon after the
| first alarm had been sounded. After he had
| received Captain McDermott's report and had
/ seen the work of the incendiary. he sent for
| Acting Fire Marshal De Malignon to investigate
] the circumstances surrounding the fire
| De Magnon took some of the waste and
wood to the house of engine No. 81. In EIm-st
! He said in his report that there was nothing
that would attach suspicion TO any tenant of the
| building There is little doubt but that the
! fire outside Job. Every detail was
| carefully planned. and it was no fault of the
! incendiary that the entire building was not
! destroyed.
The fire presented great obstacles to the fire.
| men, starting in place hard to reach at first
| with any amount of water, All the windows on
! the Leonard-st side covered by heavy
| steel shutters. A bitter cold wind and the low
| temperature other handicaps to the work
! of the iremen. In a short time there was over
q foot Of ice in Broadway. obstructlng traffic,
and the fremen and the ladders were sheathed
| in ice.
At first the flames gained headway rapidly
that Chief Kruger sent in third alarm soon
after his arrival. and then fourth.
For a while it looked as though three mines"
would be sounded. When the cotton waste and
oil began to blaze at the Broadway end. the
fourth alarm was sent out Realizing what
the consequences would be If the fire got a
good foothoId on that end, the firemen concen-
| trated their energies there.
Then the flames burst out on the fifth floor,
having worked their way upward through the
elevator shaft and the steampipe holes. The
floors are all freproofed and held the flames
in check For more than three hours the fire
men fought before the fire under control.
Ladders had been thrown up to every window
and the fremen had carried q line up every
ladder When the fire was drowned out every
pipeman had been frozen TO the ladders, and
men and ladders alike were clad in gittering
/ sheaths of ice. In Leonard-st.. the ice piled on
the sidewalk in heaps nearly yard high, and
the cellars of buildings in Leonard-st. were
! flooded
| The intense cold caused a great deal of suffer
ing among the men. The Broadway cars were
blocked for over two hours by the ice, formed
bv the water which flowed from the dozen lines
of hose across Broadway. The street was COW
cred from curb to curb with ice foot thick.
| The burning building was incased in ice from
cornice to basement windows, and from every
| sill icicIes of huge dimensions were pendent.
| Chief Kruger's gloves were frozen TO his hands
| and he had to call his driver TO his aid with a
knife before he could get them off.
| Leonard-st. is lined on both sides with dry
| goods houses and all will suffer considerable
| damage from the floods Of water that flowed
| into their easements A block or more away
| the water soaked snow frozen into solid ice
! q foot more thick.
| On the way to the fire. water tower No. L
| stuck in the snow, and the horses OF two engines
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