Perth Amboy evening news., 1909-04-02
A Pot of Crease
Boiled Over at
Mrs. LeVine's.
SMOKE DAMAGE

A pot of grease in the apartments
OF Mrs. Bessie Levine in the rear Of
her crockery store at 372 State
street boiled over at about o'clock
this morning and set fire to the
! rooms. The burning grease filed
the building with thick black smoke
and, on this account, 1t was hard to
locate the seat Of the blaze.
Joseph Boil, of 1853 Broad street.
seeing the smoke issuing from the
front of the store, turned In an
alarm from box Is at Commerce and
State streets. Protection Hook &
Ladder Company, Lincoln Engine
Company, Mcclellan Engine Com
pany and Washington Hose & Chem
ical Company quickly responded and,
in few minutes, had several lines
of hose into the building Tho
smoke was binding and 1t was hard
to tell whether the fre was in the
cellar or in the store The firemen,
however, covered their heads and
fought their way through the crock
cry store and located the fire In the
two living rooms in the rear. In
the meantime lines of hose had been
taken around to the back of the
building, which is owned by Joseph
h1amer, and in short time, tha
blaze was under control, but not be-
fore practically everything In the
two rooms had been destroyed. The
flremen managed to confine the fire
to the two rooms and, although the
walls and ceiling were considerably
burned, the flames did not get into
the apartments above, or into the
crockery store.
The heavy smoke did considerable
damage, as it completely filed the
apartments of Mr.. and Mrs. John
McClaren, over the crockery store,
and the clothing store of Mr. Kra-
mer, on the southefly side of the
building.
Boy in Charge of Store.
Mrs. Levine said that she had =.
II on the stove. while she went tos
home of her d1tnss-,s 80 - E-
stein, of DeKalb avenue, who Is H.
Mrs. Levine left her son, Harry Le-
vine, to watch the store and expect
ed to return in few minutes so
that the boy could go to the high
school, where he is q student. The
youth was waiting on the sidewalk
IN front OF the place expecting his
mother to return any minute, when
puff of smoke came from the store
Mrs McClaren was probably the
first one to learn of the fire, as
smoke started to come up into her
apartments She grabbed her two
canary birds and, placing four rings
in her handkerchief, ran to the
street below and gave the alarm. In
her excitement she dropped the
rings, which consisted OF a wedding
ringring, a diamond ring, a bangle
ring and gold-chased ring, as she
stepped from the door to the side
walk. One of the rings rolled across
the sidewalk to the gutter, but the
others went through grating in
the sidewalk. The weidinS stss|
was picked up later and, with t.
exception OF the diamond ring, the
others We're found under the grating.
Mrs. McClaren said that her
apartment was damaged consider
ably by smoke but that she had
some insurance with Boynion Broth
ers. She said that this is the sec
ond time that a fire has occurred In
the store.
Samuel Levine, who lived In the
rear sof the crockery store with his
mother, had $33 in bills In a coat in
the kitchen. He arrived shortly af-
ter the fire broke out, but was un-
able to find the money, as the coat
had apparently been burned, with
other clothing.
Mrs, Levine has about $500
worth OF stock in her store and.
while it was not touched by the Are,
the water ruined much of 1t. Sc has
some insurance with the Pratt
Brown Company. It is believed that
the damage, including that done by
smoke in the apartments above and
Mr.. Kramer's store, will exceed
$1,000 ~
Firemen Hurt. N
A. T. Munoz, of Lincoln Eff
Company, cut the back OF onlA-<-.
his hands on some glass and otsS ap
firemen got bruises in stumbling
over articles on the floor Several
had narrow escapes from being
overcome by smoke.
The Lincoln and Mcclellan steam
ers were both working and, for
about forty-five minutes, the trolley
cars were held up.
Mrs, Levine had made some bread
and left 1t on table The heat in
the room baked the loayes.
The building is a two-story frame
structure at $40 and 372 State
street, owned by Joseph Kramer