New-York tribune., 1906-12-30
BIG FACTORY FIRE.
Threatens Cro1cded East Side Tene-
ment Houses-Loss, $500 900.

The most spectacular fire seen on the East
Side for long time started shortly before 6
o'clock last night in the four story brick build
ing at No. 299 to 3O6 Water street occupied by
the National Biscuit Company. and did damage
estimated at 5000 600 Five alarms were turned
In.
The fire spread with startling rapidity. and
when the first engines arrived the scene the
interior Of the factory was seething mass of
flames. Homeward bound passengers on the
elevated lines and on the Brooklyn and Will
iamsburg bridges saw rare spectacle as the
flames burst through the roof and shot hundreds
of feet into the air. Reserves from thirteen pre-
cincts. under Inspector Nally and Captains Fer
ris. Burns and O'Toole. rushed to the scene and
drove the immense crowd. which had congre-
gated back two blocks from the fire. They also
ordered every out OF the tenement houses
surrounding the burning building Margaret
Sullivan. who i'll with typhoid fever in the
top foor of a tenement house at No 200 Cherry
street. was carried out by two policemen and re-
moved 10 Gouverneur Hospital.
Three freboats came up the river and poured
their powerful six-inch streams into the burning
building and on the roof of the sheds of the
New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad
Company. the river front. The fire at
time threatened the storage warehouse of Parke
Davis & Co at No. 292 to 2e5 South street
which is filed with chemicals. but the fremen
managed to save it by heroic efforts. though it
caught fire several times.
Deputy Police Commissioner Bugher. Fire
Commissioner Lantry and Chief Croker were
present and Commissioner Lantry's coffee
wagon much in evidence and kept the fire.
men supplied with coffee and sandwiches. The
fire was under control at 9 o'clock.
How the fire started is not known but it is
supposed to have originated in the bakeshop.
1t was discovered by Matthew Gardner the
assistant engineer. He ran TO the street and
turned in an alarm. and then Informed Engineer
Joseph Shearn. who lived on the South street side
of the building with his wife and six children.
They all got out safely. When Deputy Chief
Bnns arrived i'll response to a second alarm
and took a look at the fire. he promptly
turned in a third, but the fire had gained such
headway and the neighborhood. with it's
merous storage warehouses and tenement houses,
such dangerous one, that he soon found il
necessary to turn in fourth and fifth alarm.
which brought twenty-three engines. six hook
and ladder companies. two water towers and
three freboats.
Burning embers fire to some of the sur
rounding tenement houses several times but
the firemen were the alert, and soon extin-
guished them. The paper warehouse of r. NJ.
Winans & Co. was discovered to be on fire on the
fifth floor about hour after the fire started.
but the flames were easily eXtinguished.
There some excitement among the patients
at Gouverneur Hospital. only block and a half
from the fire. but the physicians and nurses soon
reassured them Pickpockets were busy among
the crowd which watching the fire. The
police arrested John Sheehan. of No. 6T4 Water
street, who charged with stealing gold
watch. and Charles Williams. Of Railway. y. j.,
who was accused Of relieving a man Of So.