The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-02-04
FAMILIES
ROUTED OUT Of
BED BY FLAMES
South Orange Volunteer Fire.
men Break Up Their Ball
to Fight a Big Blaze.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN
NIGHT CLOTHES RESCUED
Mrs. Joseph He'll, Who Had Just
Become a Mother, Saved.
Boy Escapes to Roof.

Fire which Quilted the three-family
apartment house of William Condran
inIrvington avenue, South orange, and
broke up a ball given by the South
Orange village firemen in the Village
Hall about l a. m. today routed out
the families of Mr.. Condran, Joseph
Helf and Mrs. Julia Mach i'll their
night clothes when the mercury was
8 degrees above zero. Had it not been
that the firemen were attending III
ball in the hall adjoining fire head
quarters and were' ready TO respond
Immediately to the alarm which was
turned in by Policeman John Manion,
Who discovered the blaze, it is prob
able that there would have been a loss
of life.
Mr.. Condran was attending the ball,
and his wife and three small children
were fast asleep in a room on the
second story of the building. Mrs.
Mach was also asleep on the second
floor, and Mrs. Joseph Helf, who was
in a delicate condition, having become
a mother yesterday, n her three
other small children were sleeping on
the third floor, all unaware that the
flames were eating the floors away
from under them and had gained big
Roadway on the first hoor and base
ment. Mr.. Helf was not in South
Orange.
Policeman Gives the Alarm.
Policeman Manion, after turning in
the alarm to police headquarters by
a police telephone, ran to the house
and awakened the occupants. The ball,
which was at its height, was at once
broken up and both firemen and others
who were enjoying themselves dancing
ran to the house, three blocks away.
When the hremen arrived on. the
scene Mrs. Mack and Mrs. Condran had
succeeded in getting out of the burning
house in their night gowns, and Police
man Manion and Sergeant Frank Ken
ney, who arrived. carried out two OF
the Condran children. Morris, the g.
year-old son of Mrs. Condran, was
not seen after a second search of the
room in which he was with his mother
a few minutes previous, n Mrs
Helf and her three children lay help
lessly in bed on the top story. The
firemen carried Mrs. Helf and hei
children into Village Clerk NJ. A. FitZ
simmons residence. nearby, and searcf
was again begun for little Morris.
Thought Little boy Lost.
Mrs. Condran shouted to the fremei
to save her son and begged them Il
enter where she saw him last, but tn,
place was like a roaring furnace at thu
time. The "vamps" were hurrying lad
ders to the side of the building, wher
a cry was heard from the roof of a one
story extension to the house adjoining
the bedroom. Fireman Joseph Tracey
pulled himself up to the roof on a door
and a shutter n little Morris was
standing shivering on the roof, where
he had climbed from his bedroom win
dow, in order to escape the smoke and
flames. The child, clad only in his lit
tie n~ightdress, was taken into a neigh
boris house.
The fire was extinguished at 3 O'Clock
and the flre-hghters and their guests
again returned to the hall and enjoyed
themselves for another hour. The dam
age is estimated at 1000.