Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-05
TEN PERISH IN FIRE
SET BY BLACK HAND
Five Others Hurt in Italian
Tenement House.
OIL USED BY INCENDIARY
Man Seen to Ignite Barrels Placed
in Hallway.
WORK DELIBERATELY DONE
Carefully Looked Over House Before
Setting Fire to Combustibles
Carried From Street.
OIL USED BY INCENDlARY
Man Seen to Ignite Barrels Placed
in Hallway.
WORK DELIBERATELY DONE

Carried From Street.
NEW YORK. October 5.-Ten lives were
snuffed out by an incendiary's torch in
the big tenement building at 71h Null
berry street at 1 am. today. Several
others were severely injured, one of whom
is dying.
The fire was in the heart Of the Gala
brian section of New York. and it is the
opinion of the police that it was the work
of Black Hand agents
The dead:
Domenico Forcillo, thirty years old; his
wife AntoineIla twenty-eight. and their
three children, Rosa. five; Joseph, three,
and Felicia. two.
Francesca PaIestrino, eighteen, board
er in the Forcillo home
Mrs. Rosa Schettino. thirty-two and her
seven-year-old daughter, Christina.
Vito Barone. twenty-one, a boarder in
Mrs. SchettinO's fiat
man believed to be Pietro Magliancia,
fifty years old.
An unidentified man about thirty years
old is dying in Hudson Street Hospital.
Five others were taken to hospitals.
The ground floor of the tenement was
occupied by Carmeno de Ia Vecchio's dry
goods store. He and his wife occupy
rooms in the rear of the store.
Fired Oil-Soaked Barrels.
About 1 o'clock de la Vecchio and his
wife were having coffee in their rooms,
when they saw a man enter the hall from
the street. The man looked carefully
about the hall and located the steps
There were some barrels at the curb
which presumably were filled with paper
and soaked with OIL
On the street were Charles Lempillo
and Charles Fresa. The two men saw the
mysterious man move the barrels from
the street, and~naarveleiFAk his midnight
actiyatysss fnsSssH not disturb the
man.
Suddenly the man dashed out of the
hall He ran full speed up Mulberry
street. turned a corner and disappeared
The next instant Lempilio and Fresa
saw flames shooting up in the hall, which
was entirely Of wood. The two men
rushed In and found half a dozen barrels
under the steps blazing. Flames had al
ready spreao themselves against the walls
and ceiling and were climbing up the
stairs.
The men yelled Fire" and attempted
to hurl the barrels into the street, but
the flames drove them back Then they
ran outside and mounted the fire es-
capes.
Lodgers Thrown Into Panic.
The tenants awoke at the first cry
and began crOwding the escapes from
the fourth and top floors down to the
second: Several women in their frenzy
dropped their babies to the two men on
the escape, and the latter passed them
down TO men on the sidewalk So great
was the excitement that call for the
engines was forgotten, but men began
firing of their. revolvers from the win
dows.
When the engines did arrive crowds
banked the streets. Men and women in
all stages of dress and undress were
running about screaming and every tene-
ment IN the neighborhood was emptied
The smoke was intense and the heat so
great that those on the fire escapes were
blistering.
One OF the first persons to get out of
the burning house was Pietro MagIianci
He came down the rear fire escape and
leaped to the yard. Then he remembered
he had left his money behind, and back
ne went up the escape, fighting his way
through the crowds until he reached the
third floor.
Af1re, He Leaps From Window.
few minutes later a man ablaze hurl-
ed himself from the third-foor window
He was taken to Hudson Street Hospital
one recognized him, but it is said it was
Maglianci.
On the fourth floor lived the Forcilo
famiIy-father. mother. three children and
the boarder Palestrino. Forcillo and his
wife got TO the escape in front and were
followed by their children and boarder,
when there came an explosion which is
supposed TO have been caused by a back
draught. The house trembled and win
dows crashed. Then came flames from
the windows below and the Forcillos
were driven back into their smoke-filled
and already blazing rooms. They ran to
the escapes in the rear In the father s
arms was one OF the children.
The mother carried another and Pales-
trino held the third. The clothes OF all
were blazing and flames came out over
imprisoned persons from view. The fire.
men found their bodies later All had
been sufrocited and burned.
About the same time Mrs Schettino ap-
peared at the front window with her little
daughter Amelia in her arms. The mother
and child were both on fire. but the
mother smothered the flames in the child S
clothes with her hands and then dropped
the little one to Il man on the fire escape.
Dies Trying to Save Child.
Back she went for her other daughter
Christina Mother and daughter were
found later burned to a crisp.
Vito Barone was a boarder on the third
floor. and when he found the fire escapes
too hot to climb down he took to the hall
He reached the second-foor landing
where he was overcome, and there the
firemen found him dead.
The fire was put out after loss OF
about 5000. Many OF the tenants were
taken to the Elizabeth street station
where clothes were provided for the
women and children by the matron.