The sun., 1909-11-21
FIREBUG'S WORK NEAR SENEY
THREE FIRES ~ FOUR DAYS 10
FEET FROM HOSPITAL.

ponce Nan suspect who. .They Say Has Con-
fessed That He star ed One Of Sew
eral Recent FIres-FIames Quencheh
BefeFe the Hospital Was IN Danger.
A young man who according to the
rolice n a pyromaniac and confesses that
he started q are yesterday on thePark Slope
10 Brooklyn. was nabbed yesterday after
nccnin one OF row of four story apartment
kcuees In Sixth street opposite the main
sntrance Of Seney Hospital. He was
srrpsted by plain clothes men John j.
Fennell and j. W. Owens Of Capt. Thomas
n. Murphy's staff from the Fifteenth
street station house within two hours
after fire was started at 4SS Sixth strees-
ThA prisoner said he was Joseph Foster.
IL years old, OF 228 Willoughby avenue.
and that he was in the employ OF the
Ediscn Klectric Illuminating Company.
He was locked up in tho Fifteenth street
police station.
Fire alarms had been coming so fast
IN the row OF apartment houses in Sixth
street, between Seventh and Eighth ave-
pues, that they had interfered somewhat
with the routine Of the steady going
dwellers therein. Yesterdays fire was
. the double apartment house at <a5.
On Wednesday morning little after 10
O'clock blaze started in the cellar OF
o01. 10 was put out by the janitor's son
With few pals Of water after the dumb
waiter and airshaft had been pretty well
Alisd with smoke and all the tenants had
beon alarmed. Within about an hour
the awnings for four OF the double houses
stored In the cellar OF sos were on fire.
An alarm was sent in and the fire was
out out after II had destroyed the con-
tents Of the cellar storerooms OF some
81 the tenants and had eaten its way
into the woodwork above the cellar CELL
ing and between the partitions on the
Grst floor.
The commotion caused by the fire
apparatus in the street. the noise OF the
eyemen and the smoke from the engines
and from the apartment house. within
abG Il seventy-hv feet of the main en-
trance to the hospital. caused excite
nsent In that institution. The windows
were thrown open and were filed with
the hospital attendants, but the patients
Who know OF the disturbance In the street
Wsre assured that there was no immodi-
af4 danger. After a few minutes OF
lively work the fremen had the blaze
under control.
q Yesterday's fire started in a store
rpom In the cellar OF 4ss, a double house
- apartments. The flames swept up
p1ss tho rear second story windows
b4fofe the firemen got them under con-
trnL A woman with a baby two days
cid -Was lying In one Of the apartments.
a etrstoher was brought from the hos
61tal IN readiness for her removal. but the
nv was yielding to the efforts OF the
nreulen and abe was not>ramoved. This
pre- was opposite the west wing of the
hQApttAl and the walls OF the house IN
yAich Il occurred are within seventy
AxA or eighty feet of tho hospital walls.
IhA 9xcitement OF Wednesday in the
heeP1tAl was repeated. The report spread
- both occasions that Seney Hospital
- Su5Hins, and crowds gathered out
To cay that the tenants in the houses
yero becoming annoyed 10 not an over
efatement. A man who lives in the
house at 5oi and who works while his
wednesday, forenoon and was about
10 get into IL, when his wife told him
that he would better delay total disrobing.
- the house was on fire. He put on
S ss h Gra an hCSl %a .s4 ssasSSd ssSd was as
iehing his breakfast. when the private
hall bell rang impatiently.
!. Somebody is ringing as il the house
va anrs, said his wife as she went
1T isl' shouted a feminine voice in the
outer hall. There's a fire on the other
The man, thankful to have got both
hia bath and his breakfast between fires,
easily portable valusbles. but by the time
nay were pretty well punched the blaze
WAs under control. At that time OF the
dAy most Of the men are away and the
Eonen OF the two double houses had
SaQttSred the lower Railways with their
tslcnstnss. They spent the rest OF the
t1reuoon picking out their valuables from
th4 accumulated heaps.
There have been within the last four
eAys -four or hve other fires in that part
Tor believing that all OF them were Of
ncsndiary origin. One Of the women
t1nAnts OF sol saw on Wednesday, after
the alarm In sos, and when the rear yard
wAs oiled with smoke, a young. man
Before the firemsn rushed through the |
cellar the man vaulted the fence and
dieappeared. She says that the smoke IN |
which abe saw him was 50 thick that she !
could not idcntify him II she saw him !
again. but she described him as being
young. besrdless, slender and tall. The
bame woman and q neighbor saw after
the hre OF yesterday morning a young
man Of the same description in the rear
Y4f0 OF OUS WIN WnaJ seemed 10 De a
can Of kerosene in his hand. He fumbled
With the telephone wires and disappeared
ever the board fence into the rear yards
cf the houses on Fifth street.
= The buildings In which the fires OF
Wednesday and yesterday in Sixth street
occurred were erected by the Arwin
Hsalty Company OF ~ Court street. Brook |
hn. The double apartment houses 4gS, |
~. sol and sos were finished a little more
dian year ago and have been sold within |
ths past few months. They have accom- |
nncdAtions each for eight families. and
neafly every apartment 10 occupied |
IhA houses at As and 4so are in process !
81 completion. Each has apartments for |
axteen families and many OF them already |
have occupants. An adjoining double |
Apartment house on the west 4sl, ia |
owned by the same company. 1t Is not yet !
r9ady for occupancy.
91nsy Hospital occupies the square |
boundsd by Seventh and Eighth avenues. |
sixth and Seventh streets. There are |
lawns on the Seventh avenue and the |
Eighth avenue sides. Facing Seventh |
direct the hospital buildings are low and |
ths houses across that street are not |
large. In Sixth street the apartment
hosises facing the hospital within about
Ssv4nty-fve or eighty feet OF its walls !
- nd n