The sun., 1905-09-04
DOG GAVE ALARM OF FIRE.
THEN LEFT TO DIE IN RUSH FROM
BLAZING PLAYHOUSE.

BLAZING PLAYHOUSE.
Police Get Many OF the TER rorstricken
on the Fire Escapes Before tho Fire
men Get Around to Help-Harlem Got
Up Early to Cheer-Building Gutted.
FRITZ Schetf; ten pounds Of fluffy French
noodle, much in favor with children Of
West llsth street; awoke from doze by
tho bedside Of her mistress. Emma Werner,
on the top floor Of an apartment house at
8lo West llsth street, q few minutes before
4 o'clock yesterday morning. There was
a strong smell OF smoke In the room; and
II offended the little dogs sensitive nose.
She paved at her mistress moment or
two: then tore out into the hall. whining
and barking with all the power Of her small
lungs, short staccato yelps that aroused
sleepers all over the house and sent them
70 their doors to find out what the poodle
vas ma king such terrible fuss about.
Smoke was rolling up from the lower
floors and filing the halls. Flames were
crsokling around the main stairway and
lighting UP the house from basement to
roof. The stairway in the rear was half
burned and falling to pieces. Before the
tenants; still half stupid from sleep. realized
IL there was q wall OF FIRE ON every floor
between them and the street door.
The FIVE story apartment house Is one
OF a row OF crowded buildings on the south
aide Of the street between Eighth and Man
haitian avenues. There were fifteen fami-
les living there. about sixty persons alto
eether. In half q minute after the little
dog reused them everybody was screaming
and shouting, the men doing the best they
could to quiet the women and keep the chill
dren still. There was rush for the win
dows and the fire escapes and the hall
doors were shut against the smoke and
6ames.
In the panic OF the moment nobody
thought Of the poodle that had warned them.
She was found after it was all over. q
singed and scorched bunch Of fur, dead near
her mistress's door.
Ed Grace, a patrolman OF the West 125th
street station, was at the corner OF Manhat-
tan avenue and 1lSth street when he heard
the women screaming in the house and the
men shouting for help. He ran part way
down the street, saw the fire escapes filled
with people and the glare Of flames In the
windows and made for Eighth avenue
and l2lst street, where he turned in an alarm
and told Sergt. Liebers, on duty at his sta
tion house, to hustle the reserves around
quick there.
Then he sprinted back and dashed into
the house. He got to the stairway and was
driven back with hair and eyebrows singed.
The inside Of the building was furnace
and Grace realized in jiffy that nobody
could be got out that way.
Meanwhile those on the fire escapes OF
the first and second floors had clambered
down, the men carrying the women and
children over their shoulders. but the flames
we're beginning to shoot out Of the windows
Of the third floor In the osntsv0f the house.
driving people to each side Of the fire Co.
capes and cutting them OF from the street.
On the iron platforms in front Of the upper
three floors the tenants wero jammed so
thickly that there was hardly room for them
tostand. Grace saw that the fire would get
to them quickly II they weren't taken Oh,
Three or four women had tainted and were
being held up by their husbands. The
fire bad become so hot by this time that
the men were shouting to the crowd in the
street that they couldn't stand 1t much
longer.
The street between the avenues was q
solid mass Of onlookers by that time. The
screams and noise OF the fire got them out
Of bed for blocks around. Some man
banged his way through the crowd with a
ladder he had found somewhere and Grace
grabbed 1t. The two of them got 1t against
the house and went up like CATS They
got the family of H. McAulifie OF
the third floor fire escape and were going
back for the Geringers when the patrol
hn okottor ho,,oo o1 tho
corner with Acting Capt. James Thompson.
sergt. McKeon and fifteen cops Of the re-
serves
Thompson got two more ladders and the
reserves went at it. Mcdonald. Hngeisep,
Dundon and Nelson cleaned OF the third
floor escapes and most Of the fifth. passing
women and children to a line Of the reserves
waiting below and helping the men get q
firm footing.
The crowd in the street cheered the cops
again and again, and every time bluecoat
scrambled down one OF the dinky ladders
with a woman across his shoulders or grip
ping child close to his breast there was
roar from the street. In a minute or two
the uniforms were anything but pretty,
the mems faces we're blackened from smoke,
mustaches were singed and every man OF
them had scorched hands.
The police were at work within three
minutes after Grace called for help and In
another three minutes Truck 70 swung
around the corner from its house at Madison
avenue and Hath street. Then second
and third alarms we're sent in. for the house
was all ablaze and the fire looked wicked.
Tenants Of adjoining houses had poured
into the street half clothed and scared.
The men Of Truck 70 ran long ladder
to the top floor OF the building, and three
Of them, George, CORDIALLY and Hugh Early.
went after the persons still on the fourth
and fifth floor fire escapes.
Miss Werner, who owned the little poodle;
had jumped out Of bed when 1t started
its frantic yelping, made her way to the
hall and then had been driven back into her
room. She got on to the fire escape and
clung there hysterically. CORDIALLY shouted
for her to keep up her nerve, that there was
no danger. She climbed on to the rail-
ing Of the fire escape before CORDIALLY could
get to her. tried to clutch the ladder, missed
IL