The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-02
IN DANGER AT TENEMENT FIRE
UiLF 4 DOZEN IN THE HOSPI-
T.tL AFTER A LIVELY BLAZE.
Jone Policeman Makes Some Merry Res
cues Before the Ftremen COme--F1ee-
ing Families Penned In Little Yard
Some Odd Costumes on the STREET

They had lively early morning fire in a
i've story tenement at 592 Amsterdam
avenue yesterday morning. While no lives
we're lost, it had sixteen families in all kinds
Of danger for time Four tenants were
sent 10 the hospital with bad burns, two
we're overcome by smoke and were carried
ont unconscious, and Policeman Charles
Kuhlmann had the narrowest escape Of
bis life.
The tenement is a narrow one, with a
central stairway and four families on each
oi the four floors On the ground floor
fed Dreir has bakery and restaurant
Ills hakeshop lin the basement Behind
the restaurant is a narrow hall where tho
tenants keep their baby carriages. Among
these carriages the fire started.
II was seen at about half-past by Henry
Rushaoh, tenant. At that time 1t was
burning flercely on the stairs. He yelled 10
the bakers to clear out, and rushing TO tho
street told Kuhlmann, who sent in he
eIarm
The stairs burned like finder Spectators
tav that II was hardly minute before the
fire had run clear to the top Of the house.
There the flames and smoke struck the
tkyight and mushroomed, filing all the
upper floor with dense smoke.
There are fire escapes at the front and
rear OF the house. Seeing that the top
floor tenants were going TO have the hard
est time getting out, Kuhlmann, without
waiting for the fremen, rushed up the
ladder for the top floors. On the fourth
he found woman trying TO tie up naked
baby in a sheet.
Down with youl' yelled Kuhlmann, and
he snatched the baby away. He forced
the woman to climb down before him.
while he carried the baby in one hand by
the scruf of its neck. Dropping it into the
hands Of the crowd below. he scrambled
up to the fourth floor, kicked in a front
window and ran through all the rooms OF a
fat He found young girl stupid with
smoke. cropping blindly through the front
room
Singing her over his shoulder. be carried
her down. The fire engines were changing
up the street by that time. and kuhlmann.
pretty nearly spent was about TO drop
to the pavement, when he heard the crowd
shouting and pointing.
The Maloneys' they yelled He swung
ont far enough to look up.
From the fifth floor a woman was leaning,
screaming for help The smoke was putting
ont behind her. Kuhlmann went up again.
ana CIaWleD lIllO lilt JuH@ 10 tAS
firemen began to make connections. He
was hardly inside, when the mushroom
Of smoke began 10 roll from the window.
When they saw that, the fremen scrambled
40 after the policeman,
Fi.cman Jos banks Vi tmglne 70 was
first through the window He stumbled
over Kuhlmann lying unconscious in the
han carried him out and passed him down
Tile ladder 10 safety. He was revived
k,antlme the Maloney family and their
,-Hrder Rudolph Novelli, we're trying TO
'fet to the roof They were just under the
skylight when 1t fell in on their heads. The
fremen. by good luck were just behind
them, heard their cries. and passed them
70 the fire escape alive, but pretty badly
burned Two streams one from above
and one from below, were got on the flames,
and the fire was confined TO the stairway.
In the meantime the tenants OF the rear
fats we're having a time Of their own On
the second floor rear live Mrs. Sncher the
housekeeper, with her son John, and August
RodeCb a widower with two children.
Rodeck was awakened by yells from
outside, and ran out 70 find the stairway
burning and escupe from that quarter shut
Of. Taking a child in each arm he ran 10
the third floor, woke all the tenants there,
got back through tho smoke 10 his own
apartment woke the SUCKERS, closed
door which shuts the hall between their
apartments from the main hall and drenched
it with a dozen pals Of water.
The last stage OF the rear fir escape Is
ladder about twelve feet long, which is
kept detached so that belated tenants
V ont use it for night stair. Last week
the janitor hung it thirty feet ny on a tele-
graph pole in the back yard, so AZ 10 keep
1t out Of harms way
Young Sucher and Eodech scrambled
down, made the twelve foot drop to the
nsphalted back yard without hu rting
themselves much, Skinned up the pole,
and dropped the iron ladder down. They
hooked it on to the escape and helped
down the women and babies The smoke
was not 20 dense in the rear.
Nevertheless when they all got down
thirty or forty Of them, they found them
selves penned up in little back yard sur
rounded by a ton foot fence, with the
gate locked. Smoke from the ground
floor filed this area The firemen did not
see this danger They were busy going
through the upper floors Young Sucher
found a big timber. the men operated II
nliicrng ram fashion and hammered Il
let'f~N'
their families.
When they got outside and looked them
selves over there we're some great effects
IN clothes. One man was dressed simply
M night shirt and pair OF rubber boots
His wife wore a long cloak over the alto
gether. Five of the children were in their
natural skins one man had on the trousers
Of pair Of pajamas aud derby hat. which
he had put on by instinct when he started
ont Of doors. The neighbors lent them
clothes
The injured are Michael Maloney, aged 49,.
katherine Maloncy, 81: John Maloney. p:
'ucolph Novelli 26-a burned. Arthur
Finn aged n and Phil Osterman, 30. were
overcome by smoke. They are at the J.
Hood Wright Hospital All will probably
recover bat the Maloneys and Noveli may
head
Nnhe Policeman kuhlmann was lying
on the pavement, with the ambulance sur
geons working 70 bring him round, some
one stole his revolver.