New-York tribune., 1908-01-04
GIRL A FIRE MARTYR.
GITES LIFE FOR OTHERS.
Janitor's Wife Dies acith Her Baby
after Warning Crozcd.

The heroisrn of the girl wife of the janitor
saved the lives of many women and children
last night in a fire which swept a part of the
four story brick building at Myrtle and Waverly
avenues in Brooklyn. In warning them of the
spreading flames she lost her own life, and after
the fire was extingushed her baby Walter nine
T months old, was found burned to death on the
floor of the iantor's apartment on the fourth
floor.
Had il not been for the heroism of this woman.
Mrs Jadrena Pedesthki, hundred and fifty
women attending lodge meeting in the build
ing would net have reached the street in safety
In going back for her baby after giving the
warning she fell, overcome by the smoke, into
the street four stories below. A moment more
and the fireman who clung to the top OF the
ladder while it still being run up could
have seized and saved her.
On the same floor as the janitor's quarters a
moving picture show is run, patronized chiefly
by the youths of the neighborhood. The fire had
attacked the stairs by the time that the alarm
spread to the audience and the hall emptied as
though by magic. The stairs were burning but
the boys slid down their stonachs on the
rails or stairs through the flames. No one was
hurt but there good many suits which
needed replacing by the time the street was
reached
One other life probably will be sacrificed as a
result of the fire. Harry Morrison who lives at
No los Nostrand avenue, the blaze and
went to the roof of his home, three story
building to watch 1t. In the excitement he
straved near the edge and fell to the street,
striking on his head and shoulders. His skull
was so badly fractured that the surgeons of St.
Johns Hospital. where he was taken, despair
of his life.
The fire swept the greater part OF the four
story building at No. 165 Waverly avenue and
Nos 444 and 446 Myrtle avenue. On the ground
floor is a saloon and on the top floor Is lodge-
room known as Waverly Hall and the moving
picture show In the rear were the rooms OF
the janitor Michael Pedesthli. in which his
wife and baby were alone. The fire started
from some unknown cause at the bottom of the
airshaft 1t ran up the sides to the top floor
and then mushrOOmed. driving great volumes OF
suffocating smoke into the rooms of the janitor
,Knowtng that the Daughters of Liberty were
| meeting in the lodgeroom Mrs. Pedesthki rushed
TO the front of the building to warn them There
were about one hundred and fifty women there
! and the lodge was just being opened. Mrs
| Pedesthki rushed by the sentinel at the door
/ and screamed the alarm. The women rushed
/ franticalIy to the fire escape at the front and
to the narrow stairways fighting for chance
| to reach the street.
Mrs Pedesthki then ran back to her own
| apartment where she had left her baby asleep
| Picking it up in her arms she Groped her way
| through the dense smoke TO the window. When
| she reached 1t she barely had strength to open
| it and lean out Holding the baby tightly she
| leaned out while the crowd below shouted TO
| her not to jump. In a minute Hook and Lad
| der 80 was running up of the big eighty-two
! foot extension ladders. with the driver, Ed
| Gross clinging to the top rung before the lad
I der was half way extended. Just as he was
| almost within reaching distance Mrs. PedeSthkl
| dropped the baby and fell back. She reeled for
| ward again. probably not half conscious, and
| and over the ffreman's head to the sidewalk be-
! low.
| Gross did not the baby and a great gust
| of smoke belching forth. he did not enter the
! window After the fire out the body of the
/ ba by badly burned, was found just inside the
| window
| Had IL not been for the boys attracted by the
| moving picture show the fire would have been
/ extinguished almost at once by the hremen
/ The BOYS had found their way to the
! roof and had disconnected the fire plugs
| connected with the tank the roof. The
! fremen connected their lines with the pipe and
| then found that there were connections and
no water This caused considerable delay ana
| it was not until damage estimated at SlO,oD
or more had been done that the fire was ex-
| tingufshed The building owned by Ernest
| Barvier of No 1893 Broadway.