New-York tribune., 1910-06-22
WRECKED BY FIREWORKS
Warren Street Building in Flames
Exciting Noon Spectacle.
ROCKETS SPREAD SPARKS
Box Dropped in Elevator Shaft
Starts Blaze-All Employees
Escape-Loss 100000.

Starting from q box of fireworks dropped
in an elevator and spread by the rush of
half dozen rockets which scattered sparks
through the elevator shaft, fire penetrated
the five floors of the building at No. 36
Warren street yesterday and destroyed the
stock of H. Rosenstein, a wholesale dealer
in novelties. mechanical toys and fireworks.
The damage was estimated at 100000
The fire started just at the noon hour.
and as the building was only a block west
of City Hall Park the police had to con-
tend with a large crowd Of curiosity seek
ers The gathering included scores of al
derrnen, city officials and clerks from the
departments in the Stewart Building
Deputy Chief Bfnns, who came on the
first alarm. found the entire building in
flames in three minutes after the fire start
ed. Abraham SiegeI superintendent of
the Rosenstein establishment, said that
there had been $4,000 worth of fireworks in
the building, and that the inf1ammable ma
teriaI of much of the novelty goods fed
the flames swiftly. Binns made it three
alarm fire Immediately. and Chief Croker,
arriving few moments later. put the
water tower in front on the Warren street
side and sent men armed with high pres
sure hose through the building at NO. No
Chambers street, to fight the fire from the
rear.
About thirty employees of Rosenstein. in
cluding two girls. escaped to the street.
though the girls had to be assisted through
the smoke on the lower floor. They were
Miss Fanny Needel, a bookkeeper, and Miss
Elizabeth Baker, a stenographer.
Deputy Commissioner Bugher established
fire lines at Broadway and West Broad
| way, In Warren street. and at Murray and
1 1Ol-Th
4 hundred reserve patrolmen from nearby
| stations held these lines, while the traffic
SQUAD men tried TO keep Broadway clear
/ bv forcing the spectators back into City
| Hall Park.
| So Quickly did the blaze spread through
out the building that men at work in the
neIghborhood were positive at first that
some OF the Rosenstein employees had been
! trapped in the basement, but the hremen
did not find any one there when they were
able to explore the building about o'clock
Before that time the fire had to be 1ousht
from the outside, and even from the street
| it was difficult to gain on the blaze, because
of the dense smoke that hung in front OF
| the building There was scarcely breath
of air stirring to blow the smoke away
and the district for blocks around was per-
meated with the fire odor-
/ Superintendent SieSel told the nremeh
that the blaze started when a box OF fire.
works was dropped to the floor Of the ele-
vator The box, he said, contained per
cussion caps, small fireworks and sky rock
cts. and the jar set off the caps, which in
turn ignited the rockets, and they tore
through the casing and up through the ele-
vator shaft scattering sparks on every
| floor.
! Fire Commissioner Waldo declared that
the fire was one of the best possible con-
/ frmations Of the stand he had taken in
| refusing TO issue retail permits for fire.
works, and he intimated that even the
wholesale field might well be looked into,
with a view TO ascertaininG the danger
/ from that source. His office has had four
! teen applications for retail permits, he said,
and they have all been refused Twelve
| wholesale permits have been issued, but
! the wholesale firms are bound to sell no
! fireworks in this city, except to dealers
who have secured retail licenses. The rec
! ords of the Bureau OF COmbustbles, which
! inspects all wholesale fireworks dealers
places weekly, showed that Rosensteln $
place had been inspected on June is, and at
/ that time there were no fireworks there