Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-14

and then gave all their attention to getting
their children out of the burning bulidlng.
A policeman who heard the cry OF alarm
rushed to the scene and every effort was
made to rouse the sleeping persons In the
house.
In the meantime the flames had spread
with startling rapidity and when the per
sons who had been asleep on the upper
floors awoke they found themselves con-
fronted by a wall of flames on nearly every
side.
Fire Escapes Filled With Rubbish.
Scenes of the widest description followed
and the panic-stricken people fighting for
their lives rushed TO the fire escapes only
to find them Uttered with rubbish of all de-
scrptions and almost impossible.
Down through this cluttered narrow pas
sagewav flowed a stream of humanity. On
some of the escapes the rubbish was so
closely packed that it became Impossible 10
pass certain points. and men, women anu
children stood literally roasting to death as
the flames roared through windows around
them
one of the escapes, which ended near the
roof of shed about twenty feet above the
ground. had been manned by Policeman
John j. Dwan. who had run plank across
to the window of an adjoining building:
Nearly a dozen persons had been carried
across this narrow bridge by the policeman
when the flames began TO sweep around the
lower end of the fire escape.
Rushing into the fire the policeman seized
a little child and started on the last return
trip across to the place of safety. He had
made nearly half the distance when the
plank burned more than half through
broke where it rested on the fire escape,
and the rescuer and rescued fell to the
Stone-payed yard twenty feet below. The
man struck fairly on his back, and one of
his shoulders was shattered by the force
of the fall. The child was uninjured.
In the meantime the firemen had run up
ladders at other points around the building,
and dozens of people We're being taken from
the crowded fire escapes and upper WIN
dows. By this time the building fur
mace. and the rescues were effected in many
cases only after the greatest show Of BRAY
cry on the part of the firemen.
Many Acts of Heroism.
Heroes developed at this time Lieut.
Bonner, of the former fire chief, as
cended the now red-hot fire escapes five
times. Four times he came down with
woman or child in his arms. The fifth
time he was making for the street with an
unconscious woman when his strength gave
way. He staggered, and would have fallen
10 death had not a comrade come to his as
SlStance. As Bonner reached a fourth-Sto
window on one of his ascents and dragged
little girl from window, where she stood
surrounded by flames, she pleaded with him
to leave her on the escape and go in after
her lttle brother, whom she had carried TO
the window.
He had fallen unconscious, and was roast
ing, she said Bonner jumped through the
WINDOW ana 1t seemed to those below as if
ne was gong INTO a furnace. He found the
HttIe boy just inside the window and car
ried him out
Fireman Hannigan repeated Bonners feat
Ginsberg --'
woman. her night dress blazing. was
seen TO crawl out of window and start
down the fire escape from the top floor
The hot iron blistered her feet and burnt
GeSD INTO her flesh lIlt 81
The scaling ladders We're run up close to
the escape and fireman had almost reached
her when belch of flame covered her like
a wave and bore her down She fell hack
and died in sight of the horror-stricken
crowd.
Death Harvest on Fire Escapes.
The position of those who had taken ref
uge on the rubbish-choked fire escapes be-
came more and more desperate every min
ute. They feared to jump, and they could
not wait until the scaling ladders reached
them, so intense was the heat. Now and
then one would jump to the ground with a
scream. baby was flung into the arms of
pollceman below by its fear-craz zed mother
Just as the policeman caught the child the
mother Owed to the ground Her BODY
struck the policeman on the head and he
fell unconscious. The woman escaped in
jury by the fall but she had been badly
burned. The baby was unhurt
Death was reaping a harvest on other fire
escapes on the building well al this time
At the rear two men and two women were
seen on the escapes. The women came first.
and every step they made was blocked by
some can or box of rubbish, often too heavy
Ior them to lift. The men would then come
10 their assistance and hur the obstacles
into the yard.
The quartet were descending SLOWLY he
tween the third and fourth floors when
flames burst from the windows all about
them. Ihe hames darted up from the third
hoor windows, enveloped the two men and
women and they fell and were roasted to
death Their bodies We're got down by the
fremen.
Through the smoke another figure was
seen on the fire escape on the fifth floor
No one could tell whether il was man or
woman. The clothes Were af1ame. In a
moment the victim sank to the escape and
died
Family Almost Exterminated.
On the top of the fire escape at the other
side of the house lay three bodies-Mrs
Solomon and her two sons, Isaac and Jacob.
They had been overcome there by the
flames
Two other members of the Solomon family
were seen to look from the windows and
then fall back in the burning building.
The elder Solomon. the husband and
father, was one of those rescued by Patrol
man Dwan. When he reached the street
wore nothing but underclothing For more
than hour he had been wandering
around in this condition, searching for his
family, when he came upon the bodies
after they had been removed from the fire
escape. AS he recognized the charred
bodies he broke into passionate weeping,
with agonized cries of ''Mein kinder, mein
kinder"
His experience was paralleled by dozens
OF others IN the house After the fire was
under control the street was filled with
| half-dressed, weeping people. seeking for
| their relatives, imploring the fremen and
| policemen to go into the burning building
| and rescue the loved ones whom they be-
| lieved perishing there. Yet one man, whose
! family had been saved, bewailed the loss
| of some jewelry left in his apartment and
begged fireman to save it for him.
The desperate reSourcefulness of some
| mother in her effort to save the lives of her
children was shown when a bundle was
seen to fall from high window in the
| burning building and light gently upon a
| heap of snow In the center of the bundle,
| wrapped around by several thick blankets
| and comforters, was found four-year-old
| boy, who suffered not at all from his un-