Perth Amboy evening news. [volume] (Perth Amboy, N.J.) 1903-1959, 1910-11-10
Fire Originated from De-
fective Wiring Back of Al
tar Yesterday Afternoon.
OUR LADY OF HUNGARY
Hungarian Roman Catholic
Church in Ruins and Rec
tory Badly Damaged.
WAS FRAME STRUCTURE
Desperate Efforts Were Made
to Save Articles Inside
But Without Success.

Fire destroyed the frame edifice
of the Church of Our Lady of Hun
gary and damaged the church par
sonage at 697 Cortlandt street, late
yesterday afternoon and threatened
to do greater damage to the dwell
Ing houses in the immediate neigh
borhood. The loss will probably
reach $4,000. OF this $4,000 is
for the church and contents. There
is $4,000 insurance Consumed
with the building were several valu-
able paintings, a chalice and nu-
merous ornaments valued at about
$4,000. The origin of the fire is
unknown, but is thought to have
started from defective electric light
wiring behind the altar
The fire occurred shortly before
O'Clock yesterday afternoon. It
originated back of the altar In the
westerly end of the church. The
flames We're first noticed by John
Stumpf, one of crowd of boys In
the yard back of the structure. He
ran to the street and Peter Morgan,
who was passing, rushed to box No.
66 and turned In an alarm. AS soon
as the extent Of the fire Ysas ascer-
tanned the Mcclellan anIs LAneolR;
/ steamers were summoned. Poor
water pressure at first handicapped
! the tiremen. They tried in vain to
| save a part of the church building,
j but it had gained considerable head
| way before they could secure a suf-
| ficient supply. Even after the Nc
| Clellans steamer had been set to
: work the pressure was low, for
Ehydrant had been sucked dry.
After eight or ten minutes had
been spent in fighting the flames,
the pressure improved and the fire.
men directed their efforts to saving
the parish house, which had been
tgnited in several places. Parts of
the cutters on the roof and various
woodwork about the parsonage
caught fire and the fire. fighters
found it hard work.
The parsonage is two-story
brick structure with an attic Fire
started in many places about the
roof. The damage by fire to the
parish house was comparatively
slight, but volumes of water were
poured into it, damaging its con-
tents considerably.
John Mitruska. who keeps a gro
Gerry store at 706 Cortlandt street,
together with Rudolph Kish and Jo-
seph Kohash, attempted to save the
valuables of the church, but were
driven back by the flames. They
succeeded in saving some curtains
and pictures in back room Mi
truska was overcome in his efforts
and was dragged out by Kish. The
rescue work then ceased. Rev.
Francis Gross sat in his study and
was reading when he was apprised
a fire was raging in his church. He
tried to save some of the contents in
the church, but was prevented by
the flames.
Valuables in the church are be-
lieved to be total loss, without inS
surance. The parish house was COW
cred by insurance held by the mort
gagee. Its contents valued at ap-
proximately $4,000, was covered by
5 500 insurance,
Father Gross announced today
that he would seek an audience with
Bishop McFaul at Trenton tomor-
row, to present the matter of erect
ing new church building. 1t Is
his intention to have erected a large
modern edifice, to be Of brick con-
struction.