Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-03
POOR SLEEP ON
FIRE ESCAPES
PLACE THEIR OWN LIVES IN
JEOPARDY
No Way to Stop the PerlI-BusIness
Calming on Fifth Avenue-Park
Row Landmark Gone--The italian
Like the Kind Mans Dog

NEW YORK, Aug. 27.-Fire fatalities
In the congested tenement house dis
tricts of the metropolis are Of fire.
quent occurrence. The remarkable fact
is that anyone should be able to get
out of these buildings during a fire
panic.
Thousands Of lives nightly are placed
In jeopardy by the tenants blocking
and rendering useless the fire escapes,
which the law requires shall be placed
on all such buildings. Even during the
middle of the day some of the streets
seem festooned from end to end with
bed clothes. as well as with garments
hung out to dry on the lines attached
to the fire escapes. Most of the east
siders sleep on the fire escapes nightly
during the hot weather. Shutters are
taken from the house windows, and laid
along the fire escape landings, then the
bedding Is placed on them for sleeping
purposes. BY these means the openings
In the landings are blocked, and in
case Of a fire there is no way for the
tenants to get down the fire escapes.
Such conditions are to be found in
thousands of city blocks all through
the east side and in other regions where
tenement houses exist in any number.
Yet four city departments are inter-
ested in keeping the fire escapes free
from obstruction. The fire and health
departments have no active powers to
force the freeing of the fire escapes
from obstructions, but they continually
report violations Of the law to the
police and tenement house departments
on which departments falls the work
of seeing that the infractions Of the
law are checked.
These departments are working con-
tinually, but through lack of men, and
also through lack of proper strictness
on the part of many of the officials, the
conditions are not remedied to any ma
terial degree. A score or two arrests
are made daily, but the great evil goes
on. Even serious fires with fatal con-
sequences do not seem to make the
tenants realize that they continually
are setting death traps for themselves.
While business has been rushing into
Fifth avenue from all directions for
several years, so that the street is
completely honeycombed with business
establishments from Fourteenth to
Fifty-ninth streets, the lower section
of the staid old thoroughfare, from
washington square up to Fourteenth
street, has preserved its residential at
mosphere.
This. however. has been accomplished
only by princely expenditures on the
part of many residents of the avenue.
Several Of them steadfastly have fought
all thought of business invasion, and
have bought up all purchaseable prop
erty near to their homes so that out
siders cannot get in and turn the prop
critics over for business purposes.
Thomas F. Ryan and Amos F. Emo
have led the movement to protect the
Immediate vicinity of their handsome
town houses.
Mr.. Ryan's decision to maintain his
city residence on lower Fifth avenue
involved the investment of nearly ST.
100000 on his part. He began with
the purchase in 1901 Of the property
on the northwest corner Of Twelfth
street, where he lives, paying 100000
Then he paid s26O,OOo for the adjoining
Fifth avenue lot with an "L" to
Twelfth street. Then, when there was
talk of erecting business building
on the opposite corner he paid 1885, 900