Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-21
FAMILIES
ENDANGERED BY
|NCEND|ARY FIRE
Rescues Made at Blaze in
M0ntclair Tenement
Block.

Fifteen families were endangered in
two supposed ~incendiary fires in Booths
block, at Forest and Walnut streets,
Montclair. Rescues were made of men,
women and children whose escape was
cut off by flames and smoke. They
were taken from windows and carried
TO the ground. While the firemen were
eubduing the first blaze another fir,
was discovered in another part of the
building. The second fire was put out
quickly. The police at work on the
case have but little hope of running
down the in~cendiaries, as there are no
clues to work on.
Mrs. Edward Peterson, who lives on
the second floor on the Walnut street
side, discovered the blaze. She aroused
her husband and they in turn aroused
others. Mrs. Charles Reilly, the owner
of the block. who lives on the third
floor, was awakened, and, opening a
window, yelled "Fire!" Others took up
the same cry and in this way the neigh
borhood was aroused.
Mr.. and Mrs. Peterson, who were re-
Gently married. found themselves cut
off by smoke on the stairway. They
stepped out in a window of a shoe store
occupied by Leonard Scarano and fam
lily. The Petersons were carried to the
street by Charles Peterson and William
Dodd, who live across the street, and
who raised a ladder to the d
Ecarano, his wife and four children
were taken out the same "a
The second fire occurred while the
firemen were fighting the first blaze.
The stairs leading to the first floor were
saturated with kerosene oil and undei
the stairs was placed a box n num-
her of newspapers, also saturated with
oil, and lighted.
Mrs. Reilly, the owner of the block.
was carried out dressed only in her
~nightclothes. She was attended by Dr..
Fletcher F. Cannon, of 1876 Claremont
avenue.
During the scene of the fire the cry
ing and wailing of women and chill
dren on the street presented a pitiabie
sight, and it was some time after the
fremen left before some of them could
be induced to enter their homes again.
The fire started in the cellar under
Scarano's shoe store and worked its
way up through the store DO the Sec
end floor n also into the cellar of
Robertson's grocery store, where a
number of empty boxes quickly caught
fire. The flames then spread to Rob-
ertson's store and passed up between
the walls to- the roof. The Walnut
street end of the building was filled
with smoke and portions of the walls
had to be torn down to get at the
blaze. The loss on the building will
not exceed $500. Robertson's loss will
be about $1,000, Scarano's 5000 and Ed
ward Peterson's probably 800. The-loss
to the other tenants is trif1ing. The
damage is covered by insurance.
Mrs. Reilly's home is at rs North
Fullerton emu Montclair, but her
family moved to New York for the
winter and she was living temporarily
In the building to look after the ten
ants, as she acts as her own agent.
She says, however, that she has had
enough of living in a tenement and that
she will hereafter place the property
in the hands of an agent. The building
is of brick and stone, three stories
high, and fronts on Forest street about
200 feet and on Walnut street about
eighty feet. 1t was built by George
Booth, a mason builder. about fifteen
years ago.