Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-01
BLAzES MANY IN 1908
Fire Fiend Keeps the Depart
ments on the Jump.
NEW YORK HOLDS RECORD
Thirty-Two Alarms Were Sounded
in Three Hours.
PITTsBURG LOST BIG BUILDING
One Killed and Heavy Money Loss
in San Francisco-Six Flats
Destroyed.
NEW YORK HOLDS RECORD
PITTSBURG LOST BIG BUILDING

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, January lit was very
busy New Year that the firemen saw usfrr
cred in. In fact. they could not remember
when they had been buster or responded
to more alarms than they did in the snort
space between midnight and O'Clock
this morning. Thirty-two alarms were
sounded in that time. greater number
than the fireman had during the big bliz-
zard.
The majority of these were false alarms
which were turned in by revelers who
seized a wild desire to put fitting climax
to a rolicking night by sending the fire
men on a fruitess mission.
Started Promptly.
The first real fire Of the year 1908 start
ed in the basement of the st. Ann building
at 2 and West 18th street at just one
minnie past midnight. P. X. Wilson, an
importer of laces, occupies the basement
and first floor. The fire was near 9th
avenue. and the festive throng surglng
along that thoroughfare merged into a
great crowd about the scene of the lre.
Some of the horn blowers were the first
to discover it, and as the fire grew Broad
way was almost deserted, the thousands
there pressing against the hre ilnes ana
hamnering the work of the firemen. The
reserves of three precincts kept them in
check.
second alarm was sounded. Iron
gates at the entrances of the building
shut out the firemen, who were ooEged
to break a plate glass window on the 9TH
avenue side. After that the HSut was
short one.
Sensational Escapes.
There was a fire out of the ordinary at
o'clock this morning in the tenement
at 2266 Sth avenue, which was the home
of eight families. 1t starteu at the bot
tom of the elevator shaft and shot up
to tine upper floors, mushrooming out and
driving the tenants to the street. clad
only in their night clothing.
Thomas Hunt, twenty-one years old, a
tenant of the fourth floor, discovered the
fire and aroused the other tenants.
Thomas Mclaughlin delayed his escape to
help Hunt give the alarm. 1t was the
rather sensational escape of Hunt and
Mclaughlin which added interest to the
proceedings.
The fire had cut off escape by the stair
way and was playing about the fire es-
capes when Hunt got out on a window
sill separating 2266 from the building
numbered DOGS. He reached one foot over
to the sill of 226S, a stretch of three feet,
and with that foot and one hand broke a
window Then he crawled in and got
down the stairway.
Mclaughlin did exactly the same trick
on the opposite side, breaking a window
at 22e4 and getting in there. Both men
were cut about the feet and hands in
getting away. The rest of the tenants
were uninjured.
Pittsburg Fire Hurts Two.
PITTSBURG. January 1.-Two firemen
were seriously injured and damages esti-
mated at 100000 resulted today from a
fire which completely destroyed the Ex-
celsior building, located on the southwest
corner of 9Th avenue and Grant street
this city. The building is six-story
brick structure. and the fire. when de-
l