The Penn's Grove record., 1905-03-17
KILLED IN TENEMENT FIRE
Nearly a Score Perish in New York
City Blaze.
MANY INJURED ARE RESCUED

POpulous East Side Dwelling House
Burns During Early Morning Hours
Most of Dead Found on Top Floor
Policemen aud Firemen Make
Heroic Rescues.
New York City. = Nineteen sheeted
bodies of persons who were burned to
death or were suffocated in a fire
which swept the thickly populated
tenement at 105 Allen street early in
the morning were laid in 4 row in the
Eldridge street station, and eleven
victims, suffering from severe injuries,
were sent to Bellevue and Gouver-
neur hospitals. Desperate rescues by
policemen and firemen, and scenes Of
terror among the thousands of East
Side jewellers who swarmed about the
blazing rabbit warren of a house,
marked the horror. Most of the dead
and wounded were children.
Spreading with rapidity astonishing
even in a thin-walled tenement, the
flames had shut off hope of escape by
the s%taircases almost before they had
been discovered. The fire escape at
the rear proved a path to safety for
scores, thanks to the cool headedness
of a policeman, who saved dozens of
lives and who finally fell three floors
while busted in his work of rescue.
The other rescues were effected from
the front of the tenement at a time
when nearly every window was beich-
ing fire and smoke and practically the
whole interior was a raging furnace.
In all there were about 100 inmates
in the building, divided among twenty
families. There was some talk that
the fire was the work of an incendiary,
but the police could find little on which
to base this theory.
The known dead are:
Mrs. Rosie Wiener, twenty-three
years old, wife of Benjamin Wiener;
Sander Wiener, Mrs. Wiener's four
year-old son; Ida Miskowitz, ten years
old; Mrs. Jessie Kohn, twenty-six
years old, wife of Harry Kohn; Nor
itz Mueller, five months old, and Rose
Mueller, four years old, the children OF
Jacob Mueller; Harry Kaufman. nine
SCdIo OIu, 1SddC SOiOllOH, ClSutCClI
years old; Jacob Solomon, eighteen
years old; Mrs. Rachel Solomon, for
ty-fivc years old. The unidentified
dead included four boys, two women
and one girl.
Because many of the dead were found
Oh the top floor would not indicate
that they were all tenants of that part
of the house. Some of them dwelt
further down. but were driven upward
by the flames which quickly converted
the lower floors into a blazing furnace.
They fled to the garnet, only at the
last to be cut off from all hope of res
cue and killed by the fire or smoke.
The building, a fve-story brick struc-
ture. of double tenement design, and
packed from basement to attic with
Jewish and Russian families, stood
at 105 Allen street, extending back to
a small paved yard in the real of IA
Eldridge street. The space RACED by
the city along Delaney street for the
approach to the Williamsburg Bridge
ends just to the north, so that from
three sides there is a clear view of the
house.
The fire had attained great Roadway
witch u~lSCONeESu, anu IL Is HOEe ludu
probable that at least half of those
who persisted were beyond human aid,
although still living perhaps, when the
alarm went in.
The fire was discovered at $40
o'clock in the basement on the south
side. The room where the blaze is
supposed to. have originated was oc-
cupied by Stanislaus Stenblock. who
ran a small sausage store. The adj
joining basement store was tenanted
by Isaac Davis, who discovered the
blaze, and who sells grape juice and
light drinks.
Davis probably spent several pre-
cious minutes in a frantic effort to ex-
tinguish the fire before giving the
alarm.
The barkeeper in a saloon at Broome
and Allen streets heard Davis cries,
and without waiting to investigate
guessed the cause and sent in an
alarm by telephone.
Many thrilling rescues were made by
the police and fire departments men
upon their arrival.