Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-24
.SH0TS AS FIRE ALARM
italian Way of Calling Help
Costly in Life.
/ SIX PERISH IN FLAMES
Four Children Among the Dead in
New York Tenement.
TIME LOST CALLING ENGINES
Escape of Inmates Cut Off Before
Policemen Knew for Sure What
Was Going On.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, November 24.-The Italian
practice of sounding fire al m by shoot
ing off revolvers instead Of turning the
key to a fire alarm box had much to do
with the seriousness of midnight tene-
ment blaze in which six lives We're lost
and four persons We're seriously burned.
The fire was discovered in the basement
of frame tenement house at 1880 Herkl-
mer street, East New York, and by the
time the revolver shots of the frightened
tenants had attracted the attention OF
the police the fire had gained such head
way that saving the building was I'M
possible and rescuing the tenants coulo
be accomplished with only partial sue
cess.
On the arrival of the first company OF
the fire department a second alarm was
Immediately sent in and ladders were run
to all the windows that had not yet peeh
licked I'D by the flames. Down these lad
ders frightened mothers were brought
with terrified children in their arms. ana
after them the grown men were hustleo.
Two Families Wiped Out.
For time it was thought that all had
been brought out. but when the fire was
finally extinguished and a search of the
ruins was made the bodies OF six persons
were found. They were members of two
families, a mother and three children
perishing in one case and father ana MS
four-year-old son in the other. ..
The dead are Mrs. Josephine CarraNeila
and her children, Rosmo, twenty-nine
| months old; Rose, three months old' anu
Lizia, seven years old; Domenico Ber-
| nardo. thirty years old, ana Ills son. fie
| tro, four years old
! Besides the six dead, five persons were
! so badly burned about the face and
hands in attempting to make reScues
that they had to be sent to hospitals. A
dozen tenants who were carried out In
| a hysterical condition or unconscious
! from smoke were given medical attentlon
and recovered without being sent TO nos
/ pitals.
The tenement was filled with sleeping
persons when the fire was first noticed
and then salvo of revolver shots at
ftracted two distant pellcemen me!
ran in the direction of the shots, ano
finding the tenement house afire, they
| turned In an alarm.
Threw Her Baby to Crowd.
TIE work of making rescues even then
was difficult, as the stairway was shut
off, and persons we're beginning to jump
from the upper windows. Mrs. Rose
Monetefort stood at a window on the
| third floor holding her year-old baby In
her arms until the window frame showed
red with flames. Then she threw the
| baby into the crowd below and jumped
| The baby was caught by Harry Miner
| of 10 Kneer avenue, Rockaway Beach,
and was not seriously injured. Mrs.
Montefort failed to clear a coping pro-
jecting from a small porch below, and
received sprained ankle.
Rafaello Carravello, every member OF
| whose family had suffered death or seri-
| Gus injury in the fire, was too badly in
| jured himself to tell much about the fire
or how it originated. He was the jani-
| tor and lived in the basement. The place
was frame structure and was owned by
the Long Island Railroad Company. The
! loss was estimated at about $500.
MAY Have Been Incendiary.
! The fire marshal Investigated report
that the blaze was of incendiary origin
All that can be learned from tenants who
ESCAPED was that it came up the stairway
| from the basement and came with such
amazing speed that even a policeman, who
had rushed UP the stairs to arouse th5
tenants, found escape down the stairs
| again impossible and had to jump from
rear window.
| The great rapidity with which the fire
spread caused many to think that the
| stairway had been sprinkled with kero.
/ Sene