The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-12
FIERCE FIRE
 THREATENS EAST SIDE
Hot Blaze Destroys Two Story N Structure at Berkshire Ave.
 and Hallett St. Fire Department Has Hard Fight to Prevent Spread of Blaze : to Nearby Tenement
 SectiOn---Damage
 $1O,00O

9lV,VUV
 Fighting . two-alarm blaze that, Arhile 1t lasted, was one of the fiercesr hnd most threatening in many years, khe Bridgeport fire department this morning succeeded in heading off a Gonf1axration that for time seemed uure to wipe out an entire section of Hhe East Side near the vicinity or kEallett street and Berkshire avenue. N Az 1t was, one two-story frame Building used as a dance hall, wIth n saloon beneath, was burned to the wide radius were scorched and dam aged. The total loss will exceed $1O,- b00 covered by insurance.
 i Only by the most desperate efforts nxere the firemen able to keep the Names in the building where they started. So terrific was the heat that Buildings more than SO feet away hurst into flames and the entire efforts fof the department were concentrated son preventing the spread of the fire.
 By rare good fortune. the blaze, which started on the staircase lead hnr to the dance hall, did not occur hntil some time after the building had been emptied of dancers Otherwise . e loss of life would probably have oc- Blurred.
 F ~4'he building in which the blaze 6rieHnla4ed is owned by John Darak, nvho keeps a saloon beneath. The hpper floor is leased as a dance hall Hos a Bohemian social club, and last night was crowded with dancers.
 So fierce was the heat that the naint on the No auto chemical was Tblistered and one wheel of No 2's tsfeamer was scorched. Only by bhielddr1x their bodies behind the at-x t1ro cfn an 1<7 oY1Qi n- kers stick to their posts.
 The building, which was of himsy 1EoBtruction and made of pine, went up with a velocity that seemed to-sbe n1most an explosion. When the fire 6nen arrived at 3:S5 in response to an ssof sleeke. r1ose pressed by lilo ws oa hhne. They had scarcely turned osi 4he water when every window in tie 3mpper f1oor gave away simultaneously land q volcano of fire belched forth land shot high into the air, casting a tNlafe for miles around second }olaru1 was immediately rung in.
 Tho whitening heat which followed &his outburst set every building in the Hmmed3afe vicinity on fire, and Act ling Chief Johnson, seeing the hope 3egsuees of attempting to save the Burning structure, directed all the en- Iergies of the men to the nearby n The nearest structure, the home of lAlexander Gardus, at 609 Berkshire avenue, about 20 feet away from the burning building. would surely have been doomed had it not been for the eombimed efforts of Nos. 1 and chem Heal engines which devoted their en- Hfre attention to this house. As it Mas the roof was burnt completely 5on on the side nearest the conhagra- kfon, and the entire side of the build Ing was scorched. and the interior on fhat side set ablaze. The chemical crews had the time of their lives keep tng this house from going up The idamage here exceeds $500.
 In the meantime all the houses in Hhe vicinity were smoking ana oozing forth tar and pitch, and the firemen Ii1renched one after another. The nnain Ire practically burned itself out At 4:30 some of the apparatus was gent away, but the last of the appar- satus did not stop pumping water in fhe embers until 7:20 this morning. All that remained of the big stair ease leading to the upper floor, when lthe fire was out, was twisted mass tof iron rods and charred wood. The hire plainly originated on this stair ease, probably from a cigarette butt, and swept up the stairway into the tdance hall above.
 The fire disclosed the fact that the puiadins was of disgracefully fimsy construction, and the flames swept through it with startling rapidity. Had the dancers been in the hall at a]1e time, there would have been a
 sadful loss of life, according to the
 nion of Acting Chief Johnson, Fire
 derwriter Frederick, and other ex-
 ts who looked over the situation
 morning.
 blaze was discovered by some
 revellers who were gathered in
 on the ground floor in the rear
 saloon, and were continuing the
 Ation which had adjourned from
 ance upstairs.
 in the street some of the young
 and women were dancing a two
 in the open air. Several people
 re sleeping in bedrooms on the f. ound floor of the structure. The s7s1ell of smoke first apprfsed them
 f the fact that the building was on fire. A hasty investigation revealed ebe flames. which sprang up with startling rapidity. There was some delay before the sleepers were routed put of the house and the fire alarm at Stilman and Pembroke streets was sounded. The fire was raging when the hremen arrived.
 The fremen forced themselves for ward into the scorching heat and fought bravely to prevent the spread of the cOnf1a grafton. The blaze was brief but excessively hot. Darak,s hall is comparatively isolated, but the heat leaped across the vacant spaces hnd constantly started the nearby housee. Across the street begins a eolid section of tenement houses, and If the flames had once obtained a 1oothold here, 1t is difficult to finag- lne where they would have stopped.
 The apparatus which responded to the blaze included Engines and G. Chemical 1 and Truck 3 on the first alarm. and Engine and Chemical 2 Tp the second alarm.
 The only thing which escaped in Darak's hall was the. bar-whfch re- HBins intact in the midst of the ruins nn the ground floor. The loss on the Darak structure is ss.000; the con- 4ents. $f.000 more; and the adjoining DouSes, another $1,00O
 1few York--y. F. Morgan is to be 6n1Dod as a witness to explain how &o nAppened 10 give 5000 to Herman X1D0n ' bankrupt hilliner Tappe z<r@(I U4 m00 f1ocal1an h< ran his Shon