Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-11
NAILED DOWN TO DIE
Mother and Her Two Babies
CIasped in Death.
SKYLIGHT CLOSED TIGHT
Firemen Might Have Rescued Woman
and Children but for Error.
THRILLING RESCUES AT IT WAS
Some Quick and Clever Work at a
Hot Sunday Blaze in Will
liamsburg.
THRILLING RESCUEs AT IT WAS

NEW YORK, March 11.-In a little cock
loft or attic about four feet high between
the roof and ceiling of the five-story double
frame tenement at 253 Bushwick avenue,
Williamsburg, Mrs. Ada Bingalli was found
dying Of burns and smoke inhalation yes
terday just before noon by Battalion Chief
Langdon and some of the firemen of hook
and ladder IS. Mrs. Bngalli, who was but
twenty-five years old, had climbed ladder
to the cockloft after she found that flames
had cut Off escape by the stairway, and
she had fallen there overcome. Clasped In
the mothers arms was her three months
old baby girl. Another daughter, Maria,
three years old, was on the mothers back
with her arms clasped around Mrs. Bin
gali's neck. Both the children were dead.
The mother still gripped tightly a bag in
which were $31 and bank book She died
soon after she had been carried down the
ladder from the roof to the street. In the
loft a few feet from where the mother and
two children were found lay young Italian
named Pietro Banattro. The youths face
and head were cut and bruised where he
had struggled savagely to get through
the small skylight. If the skylight had
been latched on the inside. as 1t should
have been, instead of being nailed to the
roof, Pietro. Mrs. Bingalli and the two
little ones that she was trying to carry to
safety probably would have been able to
reach the roof. Pietro, the physicians say,
will die.
Two Dozen Rescues.
The firemen had made more than two
dozen rescues at the front of the building,
where there are no fire escapes. and had
helped many more frantic Italians and
Poles down the fire escape at the rear and
were working solely to save property under
the superstition that all the sixteen families
had reached the street in safety when quite
accidentally they came across the dying
mother, her two dead children and Pictro
Banattro.
in the cellar and was smoldering along
until one Of the women tenants opened a
cellar door to get some coal. The open
door gave air to the flames, which were
carried quickly toward the airshaft, at
the foot Of which was a great heap Of rub
bfsh which the tenants had thrown out
OF upper windows from time to time. The
flames spread out fanwise all over the lower
floor and before many of the families
sn eled the smoke the single stairway
and it's side walls were cracking. Most
Of the men. Italian and Polish Catholics,
were attending late mass.
Some Quick Work.
A milk driver ran into Bushwick avenue
and started Patrolman Sweeney toward the
fire alarm box at Montrose and Bushwick
avenues. When the men Of hook and lad
der company 81 came a few minutes later
women were leaning far out of the windows
and holding little children out in the whirl-
ting snow as II about to drop them. Deputy
Chief Burns clattered along about this time.
One glance at the flames in the corridor be-
tween the barber shop and q shoemaker's
shop on the first floor and the sight Of the
four rows Of windows filled with screaming
women and children above caused the chief
to turn in two more alarms quickly. These
alarms brought nine engine companies.
Lally. Deputy Fire Commissioner Wise and
Battalion Chief Langdon, who did fine work
while the rescues were being made.
Fireman Fred Krause Of No. 50 Skinned
up ladder as soon as 1t was in place and
pulled a woman named Ida Schefter out of
one smoke-filled front ROOM Krause carried
her part way down the ladder, when Police
man Tom Carroll relieved him Of his bur-
den. Krause went back Immediately and
brought down three children. Krause Fire
man Pat Lynch, Battalion Chief Langdon
and all the fremen of No. 81 who could
crowd on the ladders were working sys-
tematicaIly now and were picking the hys-
terical women and children of the window
lodges and handing them to the men below
like a shop clerk taking bolts Of cloth of
high shelves.
Policemen Were Safe.
At the rear OF the tenement the foreigners
meie .ulo'i.s ote. oiie aI'o.aef On ,he zone
nre escape mere 70 reaeh tne h''ie yard
tnae separated the burning building from
small frame structure facing on Bushwick
place. Back there was where Policeman
Ton, Carroll Of the stapp street stot,o, a.,
-. -. -,o.,r = 49,, - ~ 80 "a.
ris jest "oin ai,er he nau seen ehat FRED
hrause ana rat Lyncn had enough fremen
to help them In front. Carroll didn't take
ume 10 go around the piock to get to the
rear, Dut nan straight through one Of the
stores 10 the pack door. When the crowd
was raised that Carroll had been overcome
In the store. Patrolman Jim Mcfarland
crawled under the smoke to find Carroll and
and found him working on the fire es-
cape. Word was sent to the front of the
building then that both policemen were ali
right.