New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-16
FAMILY OF FOUR DIES
WHILE RESCUERS HALT
Excited Tenants Convince Police
and Firemen All Persons
Are Out of Danger.
BODIES ON TOP FLOOR
Williamsburg Italians Spread
Alarm by Fusillade from Re-
volvers-Suspicions of
Incendiarism.

Excited tenants were responsible for
! the deaths of four persons by fire in
tenement house at No. IA Hamburg ave-
nue., Williamsburg, early yesterday morn
ing. Either the f1remen or police would
have rescued the victims but for the fact
that they were positively assured that all
the occupants had been seen to leave the
burning building. The victims of the fire
were Peter Larnfco, forty years DID, his
wife, Rose, thirty-si and their two chill
dren, Jenning, eight years. and Bessie,
twelve years. They were overcome by
smoke and probably were already dead
in their rooms on the top floor when the
flames reached them.
The house was four story double
frame tenement near the corner Of Suy-
dam street. On the ground floor Morris
Fuchs had candy and stationery store,
and with his wife and four children, oc-
cupied rooms over the store. The occu-
pants Of the upper floors were all Ital-
ians. The Larnicos had rooms on one
side of the top floor
The fire was discovered shortly before
8 o'clock in the lower hallway, near the
L wv lIlSu WIZ WSlS pcSSlu6 oii
the opposite side of the street saw the
flames, and their shouting brought Pa
trolman Quinn, of the Hamburg avenue
police station. Some of the women ten
ants were awakened by the shouts, and
when they found their apartments filled
with smoke they added their screams to
the tu1nult, and the entire neighborhood
was aroused. The adjoining tenements
are thickly populated with Italians, and
the men began to discharge their revolv-
ers from front windows to attract the po-
lice
Rescuers Face Bullets.
Patrolman Quinn, after discovering the
lower hallway ablaze rushed to the near
est frebox and turned in an alarm. Ser
geant ManseIl and Patrolmen Donnelly
and Swanson were a block away, near
Bushwick Park. The three heard the
shots and screams and Immediately
started on a run in that direction. AS
they were approaching the burning
building the shots continued, and they
could hear the bullets whizzing past
them.
ing building and made their way through
fire and smoke to the next floor. They
found the Fuchs family almost overcome
and also the family OF Joseph Prainco,
on the opposite side, affected by smoke
Both families were helped out to the cor
nice over the store and assisted to ad-
Joining houses Meanwhile, Captain
Becker was in his room in the station
house, two blocks away, preparing to re-
tire when ne heard the fire screams and
pistol shots. Putting on his slippeN and
without either hat or coat, and calling
to a dozen men who had gone to bed, he
ran all the way to the fire. AS he ap-
preached the house he could hear bullets
pass him. The captain, with the patrol
men who followed him, got into the burn
ing building from adjoining dwellings,
and they assisted in the work of rescue
until the fire and smoke became SO In
tense that they were obliged to give way
to the firemen.
Said Every One Was Safe.
The crew of Engine lis was first on
the scene AS inmates of the house kept
saying IIldl ever DOuy " DIS dCSOulilcu III,
the police and f1remen assumed that the
Larnico family had also been rescued. In
the mean time, the fire had spread
through the house and reached the roof.
Nearly two hours elapsed before the
fire was under control. and then the fire
men began to investigate to ascertain the
damage 1t was when they entered the
rooms of the Larnico family, on the top
floor, that they first found the body OF
the man near the front window, while
Mrs. Larnico, with the youngest child in
her arms was found in an adjoining
room. The woman had religious figure
in her hands. as if she was praying when
death overlook her The other child was
found dead under a bed. The bodies
we're identified by relatives and taken to
the police station.
An investigation led to the belief that
the fire was of incendiary origin. The
noIice were told that there had been other
fires in the building. but this was denied
nv