Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-05
IA PERISH IN TENEMENT FIRE.
Escapes Were Removed From tn,
House Pending Alterations.

dispatch from New York last night
says Because of the lack of adequate
safety precautions, fourteen persons were
killed and score injured in a tenement
house fire early this morning. The house
No. 1O4 Attorney street, was undergo
ing alterations. and either through gross
carelessness or deliberate violation of the
city ordinances there were no fire escapes
below the third floor in the front of the
hve-story structure. The only means of
egress was a temporary stairway in connec-
ton with ladder
Coroner SchoIer and Police Inspector
Schmittberger are loud in condemnation
or the tenement house and buildings de
partments. Morris Levine the lessee of
the building, was arrested last night, and
the police under orders from the coroner
are searching for the owners and the con-
tractors In charge of the alterations
Weakened from sleep by the cracking and
roaring of the flames, the tenants fiocked
to the upper fire escapes, thronging on them
like swarming bees. Unable to get to the
ground by the stairways, which had been
partially torn out. they We're equally I'M
able to reach safety because of the absence
of the lower fire escapes. Driven to frenzy
by the imminent danger. men fought each
other and the women and babies for places
furtheSt from the Swirling blaze. Desper-
ate. many leaped from the third story, pre-
ferring to risk the awful jump rather than
to invite certain death in the flames.
Others were pushed from window Lodges
and the upper story fire escapes.
That the death list was not far larger
was due almost entirely to the bravery Of
the firemen, who, against great odds
worked even the firemen of this city
have not worked in years. One of the
worst of East Side fires they call this.
Running up ladders from story to story,
hanging to graphing hooks. they won the
fire escapes on the third floor. From man
to man they passed tenants down to safety,
by their sheer nerve and daring carrying
hope to the terror stricken people.
Two there were, Christian A. Kalbfieisch
jr., and Michael Stevens of truck IS, who
were the first up the ladders, and stayed
until the heat of the flames literally burned
the iron balcony from the brick work OF
the fifth story Smoke grimed and Bills
tered. they stuck to their posts until the
fire escapes were cleared, and then tried to
go through the house, a furnace Of seeth-
ing flame, for other rescues Indeed, they
did bring from the ha..ways two or three
persons before they were forced to retreat
Just how the fire started is a mystery
The police believe that a lamp set in one
of the Railways to give light-according to
the tenants there had been no gas in the
house for several days-became overturned
and the flames, famed by the draught from
the open floors, swept up to the roof with
Irresistible force. The house was an old
one.
Directly in its rear was one of the "ar-
cades" which are coming into favor on the
East Side, and the front of the burned
the house into an arcade to connect with
the one In the rear. The front and rear
wallis of the basement and first floor had
been cut away, the upper floors being sup
among which the stairways from the upper
stories reached. gropingly
Tenants of the building had protested
against these conditions. some even trying