The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-15
RESCUED AS
FIRE SWEEPS
TENEMENT
CONFINED from First Page,

- tt
was supposed to be all out they were
alarmed again by the discovery OF Q
blaze in a closet on the second moor
which necessitated the calling OF 9
fireman with a small e~xtinguisher. who
had to work a half hour or more be-
fore every vestige of a spark a beer
extinguished.
While the damage by the fire. which
amounted to only about $500. yet oil Of
the tenants OF the building suffered
more or less from water, and were also
subjected to danger to their health py
having to jump from warm beds into
the cold air, in scanty raiment.
The building where the fire occurred
Is one of "a row of three-story frame
buildings, with exits veritable fretraps'
as the only way Of Escape Is by a a
row hallway. There is no fire escape
on the building, front or rear.
1t is an old building with oil
the modern improvements, and is n
sidered something of a Bee Hive" and
is in a dangerous locality for a blaze,
because of the number Oh lrathe
dwellings that surround 1t.
The first floor of the building was occu-
pied as q grocery by Samuel Singer, who
lives elsewhere. but his 17-year-oid clerk
slept in a room back of the store. TIT
clerk had to climb out Of a window IN
the rear part of the store. Singer couio
not remember his clerks name TO-DAY
as he said the young man nad onis
worked for him about a week.
In the front part. of the second moor
lived Mrs. Elizabeth Weiss, 81 years DID,
with her daughter, Clara, and son, john
and a granddaughter, Hazel, 8 years OLD,
In the rear part of the same MOOT hseu
Michael Richman, with wife and BABY.
Charles Berger, with his wife and four
children. 10 months old, s years, 10 and Il
years old. occupied the front part OF the
third floor.
The fire was discovered by Special
Policemen William Ringleib and George
Brann. who were on their way home from
doing duty at a ball In Johnson's Hail, In
Plane street. AS they were passing the
place Ringleib saw smoke coming from the
hallway alongside Of the grocery store,
and as he tried to enter he found the
hallway full of smoke, SO dense that ne
could not go In. Then he and Brann
began to shout to the people living IN
the upper part Of the building.
Berger heard the screams, and, raising
a window, he learned their cause.
Berger Immediately began to arouse the
other members Of his family, and also
the other tenants.
When they tried to get down to the
street by the hallway they found that
the latter was too much filed with
smoke, and then they opened the WIN
dows and began to call for ladders.
The occupants of the house were re-
uuested not to jump by the W special
policemen. William Drucker, who lives
across the street from the place, was
awakened by the shouts Of Ringlieb and
Brann, and hastily DOMINIC trousers, shoes
and overcoat, ran bareheaded to Engine
Company No. 6, at Springfield emu and
Hunterdon street, and notified the man on
house duty.
The latter Immediately notified fire head
quarters and box 69 was turned in. En-
CINE Company No. 6 made a quick run, and
1t was we'll they did, as the demand for a
ladder was had.
Mrs. Berger had made her way to the
second floor, and then climbed out of the
window onto q ledge over the store, with
her second youngest child in her arms,
and. to the breathless establishment of the
spectators, walked slowly but safely along
the ledge to the house next door, and was
lifted into a window of that house.
Berger, who has only. one arm, was the
next to make his escape by the ledge.
His two older children made their escape
down the stairs to the lower hallway. AS
they neared the bottom steps they saw
flames flashing across the stairs. but fear-
lessly they made a brave dash through
the flames.
Just as the ladder on the ~hosewagon
was being raised against the house, Mrs.
Berger, with her 13-months-old baby In
her arms, cried for somebody to catch her
ab4Id ~vhtoA che oosd She xuao oOinp m
let fall.
Special Policeman Brann caught the
child in his arms, amid the applause of the
crowd which had gathered.
A few minutes later Fireman Decker, of
Engine Company No. 6, emerged from a
second-story. window with Mrs. Weiss in
his arms, and carried her safely down the
ladder.
Mrs, Richman, who was close behind the
two children, seeing that they escaped
without danger, made a dash through the
gauntlet of fire, but her flowing hair was
caught by the flames and badly singed,
but she escaped without other injury.
Her husband with their baby in his
arms, made his escape to the second floor,
and thence t the street by a ladder. fol-
lowed by the other members of the Weiss
family. =
BY that time Engine Companies Nos.
20 and IL, with Truck No. 3 and the
Salvage Corps were on the spot.
Acting Deputy Chief Sloan was at the fire
soon after Engine Company No. 6, and I'M
der his careful management made short
work Of the blaze, which had made its way
to the roof.
1t took nearly two hours, though, before
every ember was supposed to be out, as the
fire had gotten in between the walls and
was difficult to get at.
An Investigation of the cause of the
blaze showed that 1t was probably due tc
a lighted cigarette being thrown carelessls
into a crate of wooden butter dishes, storet
in a narrow entrance off the hallway ir
the rear part of the grocery store.
While none of the tenants suspect in
cendlarlsm, they think It a peculiar case
as it was only a short time ago that Mr.
Berger discovered fire In the same place
At that time he e~xtinguished 1t withou
aid.
The entrance to the rear part of tn
grocery store is close to the stairwa,
leading to the upper part of the building
and the blaze this morning Tapped tn
stairway, and that was what made exi
by the stairway so dangerous.
The tenants were warm In their prais
today of the work by the two specia
policemen in their discovery of what Nigh
have been a human holocaust.
It Is said that residents in the vicinit,
of Fifteenth and Morris venue vii
! petition the fire board to have a. fr
alarm box placed at that point, becaus
box No. 61a, at Fourteenth n Morri
avenues, is too far away, and the mex
nearest box Is at Fifteenth avenue an