Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-26
LOST LIFE IN FIRE
Fatal Confagration in Gar
field Park
AT ITALIAN CA M P
EARLY MORNING BLAZE CAUSES
GREAT DAMAGE.
Shack Burned to the Ground and a
Number of Laborers Made
Homeless Thereby.

A fatal fire occurred in the commissary
in the italian camp in Garfield Park TINS
morning shortly after o'clock One life
was lost and about thirty workmen were
made homeless. All the men who were in
the buildings were Italians. Charles 1ppo-
Ito fifty-five years DID, proprietor of the
commissary, lost his life in effort to
save the money he had in his trunk. He
was burned to death and his charred
mains were taken from the debris after the
firemen had finished their work.
All the buildings on the reservation are
frame structures, and the one that was de-
stroyed was the sleeping place for nearly
forty of the workmen who are in the en-
ploy of the Drake-Stratton Company. When
the fire discovered there were several
railroad engines on the tracks of the Penn
sylvania railroad in the park, and the noise
made by the engineers footing their whistles
aroused many residents of the southeast
section. Then the reflection of the light at
tracted attention of people in all sections
of the city. Despite the early hour at
which the fire occurred immense crowd
collected about the vicinity of the burning
structure and remained there until the last
spark had been eXtinguiShed. The body of
the dead man was removed from the mass of
charred wood and also his personal effects.
The police recovered an amount of charred
paper money and melted silver. Afterward
scores of men and boys were permitted to
search the ruins for money other Valua
bles Coroner hewitt examined the body
at the morgue and thought an inquest
would hardly be necessary, the victim
had escaped from the building and gone
back there against the protests of his
friends. Two dogs that belonged TO Ippolito
were also burned to death. Ippolto's body
was found near the remains of one of these
dogs and against the trunk from which he
was trying to get his money when he was
overcome by the smoke and blaze and died
East End of Building.
The commissary was in the east end of
tie big one-story frame building In this
part of the building the victims were
four other Italians. They were Mar
co Scanniello, Vito Pessaloni Guesseppe
Gifone and Giovanni Scanniello. Marco
scanniello was the first of the five men to
be aroused by the smoke. He became
greatly excited and yelled fire ar the top
of his voice After arousng the other four
men in the commissary he went to the end
of the building in which many men
occupied cots. In remarkably short time
the occupants of the structure were out
side the building in their undergarments
and were running about the place as If they
We're unable to comprehend the meaning of
what was happening. 1t was because of
their excitement that many of them lost
small sums of money and their wearing
apparel
Policeman Dulaney of the fifth precinct
was upon the scene shortly after the fire
started, having been attracted there by the
blowing of the whistles of the engines He
reached there about the time that Ippolito
returned to the burning building to save
his cash and effects. When Ippolito started
to return to the building he was warned of
the danger and his friend, Marco Scan
niello, grabbed and held him. IppoIto was
too much concerned about his wealth to
listen to the entreaties of his friend and
breaking away from him he rushed through
the smoke and disappeared About the time
he was overcome by the smoke his groanS
were heard by the crowd the outside,
but the people who heard him were power
less to help him. 1t was not until the
flames had consumed the entire building,
however, that the firemen and policemen
were able to enter and get the body. One
hand had been burned off and a leg had
been separated from the body. Some little
difficulty was experienced by the firemen
in reaching the burning building because of
the work that is being done by the contrac-
tors in the construction of the tunnel.
Few Who Could Speak English.
There were but few persons about the
fire who could speak English, and for this
reason not many of the fremen realized
that there was man in the building until
the flames had about been extinguished.
THE English was frightened out of the
few Italians who could speak it," remarked
a policeman who was at the fire.
Policeman Oriani was summoned to act
as interpreter, but unable to reach the
building until the fire had been eXtin-
guished. He then assisted Policeman Du-
laney and the Italians in caring for Ippo-
litos remains and also in the search for his
valuableS. The money and some of his ef-
fects were taken from a mass of charred
wood and sent to the police station Some
of it is in condition to be redeemed by the
Treasury Department.
The firemen had hard work to prevent
the destruction of another frame structure
that was occupied by about three dozen
Italians. One end of this structure was
scorched and its occupants took their ef-
fectS to a place of safety. Today the police
notified a brother of the deceased. who
lives at No S5 Mulberry street, New York
city, of the sad affair. Two nephews of Ip-
polito live in this city and employed in
the tunnel. They will probably take charge
of the remains until the brother in New
York is heard from. The total loss, in
Guiding the sums of money belonging to the
several workmen, it is thought, will amount
to about $500. All day long crowd of
men and boys were busy scraping in the
ashes looking for money.