The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-25
"
A Saloon Is Set ON Fire by the
Friends
OF Three Men Caught While
Trying to Rob 1t.
THIRTEEN ARE DEAD.
The Flames Spread to Tene-
ments Occupied by Italians.
Bodies OfVictims Found Huddled
ON Top Floor.

New York Nov. 25.-Thirteen persons
| lost their lives and several others were
injured early today In a tenemnt mouse
fire at 109th street and Second avenue.
All the dead were Italians. Seven OF the
13 were children.
The bodies were found huddled to-
gether in rooms on the top floor of the
four story building, where the terror
stricken people had been driven by the
flames which rushed up from the lower
floors. They died before they could
reach windows which led to f1re
escapes. Some had been enveloped in
the flames and burned alive. Others,
overcome by smoke, We're spared tne
agonies of death, by the flames.
That the fatal fire was the work OF
incendiarieS who sought revenge is the
opinion of the police and firemen who
made the first hasty examination
Three weeks ago three Italians were
caught in the act of attempting to rob
safe in the saloon of Giuseppe
Cudano, on the ground floor. The safe
contained over $1,000 which the saloon
keepers friends had withdrawn from
banks during the money panic. The
robbers were arrested and are now
awaiting their trial The fire or to-
day started in Cudano's saloon and the
police believe it may have been the
work of friends of the prisoners, who
took this means of squaring the ac-
count with the saloonkeeper.
Cudano discovered the fire when he
went down to open his place of business
early this morning. AS he opened the
door he was met by a rush OF names
He dashed up the stairs to the tene-
ments above, crying out for the occu-
pants of the building to run for their
lives. When he reached the rooms oc-
cupied by his own family, he burst In
the door and seizing his young son
Domonio in his arms, told Mrs. Cudano
and other members of the family to
follow. Cudano and the boy managed
to find their way down stairs to the
street. but the woman could not get
through as the flames had cut Off the
exit by that avenue. 1t is supposed
that Mrs Cudano and the other chill
dren sought safety in the upper part
of the building. Just what happened in
the burning building before the fire was
checked never will be known
So quickly did the flames spread that
almost before the hremen arrived the
whole building was furnace and 1t
was impossible for any one to enter.
Even the cries of the agonized women
and crackle of the flames, the kissing
engines and the frantic, babbling
crowd, which pressed as closely as pos
sible to the fire lines. Not a single per-
son was seen to appear at any of the
windows of the building, with the ex-
ception of those on the second floor
from which several persons reached the
fire escape and were rescued. The rea-
son for this was explained when, after
the flames had been partially checked,
fremen fought their way through the
smoke to the upper floors.
There they came on piles of dead
where they had fallen victims to the
rush of flames and smoke even before
they had a chance to attempt to save
themselves. In one of the heaps the
f1remen found a woman who made one
last desperate effort to save the life of
her baby, even when she knew that she
herself was doomed to horrible death. |
She had folded her arms tightly around
the little one and then huddled close |
to the floor, her own body protecting |
that of the child. The mothers body !
was badly burned, that of the child bore
a mark but it was dead of |
suffocatfon. On every side of the moth |
ar and child lay the bodies of other |
victims.