Evening star., 1909-04-30
EIGHT PERISH IN Tenement
Fourteen Others Injured, Some of
Them Fatally.
SCORES OF HELPLESS RESCUED
Imprisoned Mothers Hurl Their
Babes to the SidewaIk-Six Of
One Family Die.

NEW YORK, April 30-Eight per-
sons, five of them children, were burned
to death and fourteen others were in
jured. some OF them fatally. In an in
cendiary fire in a f1ve-story tenement
house at 81 Spring street. occupied by
twenty Italian families, early today. The
blaze followed a demand by members Of
a so-called Black Hand society for the
payment Of $1,000 blackmail. 1t spread
through the building with startling rapid
ity, as the Railways were soaked with
kerosene oil by the blackmailers.
Jacob Bruck, the proprietor of grocery
store on the main floor Of the building,
received April IS a letter reading:
I'VE demand $1,000 or death. Bring it
in Mott street. Petrosino IS dead, but
the Black Hand lives.
(Signed) BLACK HAND SOCIETY"
Monday last Bruck received another
letter, written in similar strain. He
turned both letters over to the police.
Found Hallway Blazing.
The alarm was spread by the firing of
a volley of revolver shots from the win
dows of the burning building. Policemen
who, responding, burst in the main door
found the hallway saturated with kero-
sene and blazing fiercely. Two half
emptied cans Of kerosene were on the
stairs. The frightened tenants fled 10
the roof or thronged the fire escapes in
the rear, which were clogged with OBJ
StructionS.
Men and women were fighting for a
way down the escapes when the police
went up, aided them and, entering the
| rooms, brought out several unconscious
persons.
H.,
jured by falling from the escapes. and
the police had to club the men to save the
women and children.
The loss was about $4,000.
Tried to Take Many Lives.
| The tenement was completely filled
and many of the families kept boarders
1t is supposed that nearly 80 Italians
| were sleeping under the one roof wher
| the place was set fire to. The black
mailers. seeking revenge against Bruck
set the fire in such a way as to take as
many lives as possible. Most OF the ten
ants made their escape by the front and
rear fire escapes The existence of
| fire escape at either end of the building
was what saved the occurrence OF q
much greater calamity.
| The fatalities were confined almost en-
| tirely to the third and fourth floors. There
| the flames mushroomed out through the
apartments. breaking through from the
furnace-like shaft OF the stairs. The in
| mates of several of the apartments were
| caught without moments warming by
/ the deadly blasts of flame and smoke.
In the one family of De Bonis. on the
| fourth floor, six members lost their lives
choked by the smoke, with never a
chance to escape. Only one of the family
succeeded in saving himself. The samt
fate was upon the Gentle family on the
| third floor. when they were reached In
the nick of time and carried out by the
police and firemen. In the panic Of the
| women and the jam Of fame-driver
refugees on the fire escapes many came
to grief Some fell and others injured
themselves in desperate leaps TO safety.
Hurled Children to Sidewalk.
One of the most grewsome happenings
of the fire was due to the action of the
mothers imprisoned aloft on the front fire
escape. Six Of them. despairing of es-
cape, hurled down their children to be
caught by those below. Four OF the
| babies were caught. but two struck the
street. One was instantly crushed to
DEATH the other fatally injured.
The policemen, reaching the scene frst
made utmost exertions to bring down the
endangered tenants They rescued scores
of helpless, smoke-stupefied tenants In
the critical few minutes before the rails
| ing OF the fire ladder. Several police
men distinguished themselves by making
several trips each into the places of dan
ger and bringing down person after
person. The firemen succeeded in exiin-
gushing the blaze by the high-pressure
l