The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-25
Is BURNED
TODEATHI IN
TENEMENT
Mothers Sacrifice Own Lives
in Fight to Rescue Their
Little Ones.
INCENDIARIESA ARE BLAMED
INCENDIARIES ARE BLAME ID
Police Suspect Friends of Pris.
Oners Who Were Arrested i'm
Connection With Recent At
tempted Robbery OF Sa-
loon on First Floor.

NEW YORK, Nov. 25-Thirteen per-
sons lost their lives and several others
were injured today in a tenenlent-house
fire at 109th street and Second avenue.
Seven of the thirteen were children.
The bodies We're found huddled together
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 had succumbed before
they could reach windows which led to
the fire escapes. Some had been en-
veloped In the flames and burned alive.
Others, overcome by smoke, were spared
the agonies of death In 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 men were
caught in the act of attempting to rob
safe in the saloon of Giuseppe Gu
dano. on the ground floor. The safe
contained over $4,000. which the saloon
keepers friends had withdrawn from
banks during the money panic. The
would-be robbers were arrested and are
now awaiting trial. The fire Of today
started In Cudanos saloon, and the
police believe that it may have been
the work of friends of the prisoners,
who took this means of squaring the
account with the saloon-keeper.
Cudano discovered the fire when ne
wont down 70 open his place of busi-
ness early this morning. AS he opened
the door he was met by rush OF
flames, and without waiting a moment
to investigate dashed up the stairs to
the tenements above crying out for tho
occupants of the building to run for
their lives. When he reached the
rooms occupied by his own family he
burst in the door, and, selling his
young son, Domeoino, 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 before the women
could get through, the flames had cut
off exit by that avenue. 1t is supposed
that Mrs. Cudano and the other chill
dren sought safety in the upper part of
the building.
So quickly did the flames spread that
almost before the firemen arrived the
whole building was a furnace, and 1t was
impossible for any one to enter. Even the
dren were drowned by the roar and
crackle of the flames, the kissing engin es
and the frantic babbling crowd which
pressed as closely as possible to the fire
lines.
Not a single person was seen to appear
at any Of the windows of the blazing
building with the exception of those ON the
second floor, from which several persons
reached the fire escape and were rescued
Tho reason for this was explained
when, after the flames had been partially
checked, firemen fought their way through
the smoke to the upper floors. There they
came upon piles of dead, where they had
fallen victims to the rush of flames and
smoke even before they had chance to
attempt to save themselves.
Ir one of the heaps the flremen found a
woman who had 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 down close to the
floor. her own body protecting that of the
child. The mothers body was badly
burned that OF the child bore scarcely a
mark, but 1t was dead from suffocation.
on every side of the mother and child lay
the bodies of other victims.