The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-05
Firemen, Unconscious BY
Gas Fumes. Fight Like
Maniacs When Revived.
HEROIC RESCUE WORK
Policemen Carry Helpless Victims
Out OF Blazing Tenement in
New York .- Battle With
Flames in William Street
and at Factory.

NEW YORK. Dec. 5.--One woman
was killed and seven tiremen were
overcome as the result of two fires to-
day. Mrs. Annie Llnahan, aged rs. was
burned to death in five-story brick
tenement in East Seventeenth street.
Many were rescued from windows and
fire escapes
Illuminating gas nearly caused the
death of seven flremen who were fight
ing blaze in a store and office build
ing at 13o William street. The flames
had been nearly extinguished. and the
men were flooding the sub-cellar when
a gas pipe burst. All were overcome.
detachment of police reserves
rescued them and they recovered under
treatment.
At the East Seventeenth street fire
police and firemen saved forty or more
persons from burning to death.
The tenement. six-story structure,
was the home of at least eighteen fam
lilies. all of whom We're fast asleep when
citizen passing on the street at ABS
o'clock saw flames shooting from the
hallway. When the alarm was given
by policemen the flames had shot UP
from the cellar through the stairway
well 10 the roof. The awakened ten
ants had tried TO escape by the stairs
and then taken to the flre-escapes. The
lower ladders of the escapes in front
and rear were raised and the helpless
men, women and children who stood
on the ladder above the first floor Of the
house We're being beaten by those IN
the rear.
Policeman AIurtha climbed I'D a water
pipe and leaped to the escape He
tried to lower the ladder, but 1t was
frozen fast. Then he took men, women
and children alike and tossed them into
the arms of Policeman Fink below.
He made his way past the fighting
tenants to the top floor, where he found
Doshon Drogowatchldn. his wife and
their young daughter. The flames were
all about them. and the man and wom-
en- seemed to have resigned themselves
to death.
Murtha took the mother and child in
his arms, and ordering the man before
him pushed his way down the escape
and handed them over to Fink. Murtha,
on returning, found ON the second floor
David Bergman, his wife and four chill
dren, and his sister-in-law and her two
children. First Murtha carried down
the six children, one and two at
time. Then he helped out the women
and gave them to Fink and made Berg
man save his own life.
Policeman Humbuetel, from q high
fence leaped to the fire-escape and,
climbing to the top floor, he saw Mrs.
Kate McMahon, a woman weighing $50
pounds, whose rooms were not connect-
ed with the escape. The woman was
close to the flames when the policeman
reached her and was prepared to leap.
"Stay where you are!" cried the po-
liceman.
The woman, however, was too fright
ened to obey. With a shrek she pitched
herself toward the policeman. Hum
buetel grabbed her in some way and
held her until she could climb to the
fire-escape. Then he took her down and
dropped her from the ladder on the first
floor.
Again going up the ladder, the policeman
saw Mrs. Teresa Tonh standing In the
window of the third floor, preparing to
leap. Before he could warn her she Jumped
through space.
Her body struck the hre-escape, and as
she bounded off she fell on the policeman's
back. lie held fast, and the woman was
kept from diving TO her death.
on the top floor the policeman found
Mrs. Julia Bellfiore and her eight weeks
old baby. The mother was too frightened
to attempt to save herself or child. The
policeman buudled the two into his arms
and carried them to safety.
When the firemen arrived things were
looking most dangerous. In many Of the
windows appeared the faces OF horror
stricken men and women. Three ladders
were put up by the trucks and then the
firemen strung up scaling ladders to all
the floors and the tenants were carried to
safety.
on the second floor the fremen found the
body of Mrs. Lenahan. The old woman
had tried to get to the fire-escape, but tho
flames had oyertaken her.
AT first it was thought lives had been
lost and Deputy Chief Landlord sent his men
through every part Of the blazing house
where they dared venture. They found
the doors of the various apartments had
not been opened. and this, undoubtedly,
kept the fire confined to the hallway until
the tenants were rescued.
The seven tremen overcome at the Will
lam street fire, ordered by their chief Into
the cellar, were Wading waist deep in
water when a gas pipe running through
,the cellar burst.
The dremen inhaled the fumes as they
tried to reach the steps leading to the
first floor, and one by one fell unconscious.
Up above were dozens OF fremen waiting
to take their turn In the dangerous cellar
when one of them cried out to Deputy
CHIEF Guerin:
''Those men are dead down in the coli
lar"
The water was rising fast, and the ceI-
lar was dark as pitch. Down the narrow
stairs the rescuers went, only 10 breathe
in the gas and fall. Others came behind.
and. holding their breath while they
worked. dlved through me lnuddY water.