Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-02-13
FIRE IhPERILS
DOZEN CHILDREN,
ALL ARE SAVED
Three Taken from Windows
by Panic-stricken Parents
Early This Morning.
GROCERYMAN LOSES $500
KEPT UNDER PILLOW
Boarder Is Taken Unconscious
from Burning Bed=-Damage
About $1,000.

A sensational night fire in which tho
lives of more than a dozen little chill
dren were imperilled, three being car
ried out through windows In the nick
of time, and one man taken uncon-
sclous, just as the flame reached his
bed, burned out two stories of the
three-story tenement house at the cor
ner of Downing and Jackson streets
about 2 o'clock this morning and sent
the whole neighborhood into a panic.
The loss of $4,000 does not include
$500 which burned beneath the pillow
of John Maduza and his wife as they
rushed from the building each with \
child in their arms
Maduza conducted a grocery store on
the first floor of the building, living
in the rear with his wife and four chill
dren. The children are baby girl of
twenty months and another of three
months and two boys. aged and 8.
officer Discovers Fire.
Special Officer Patrick Doyle, who
was at a dance hail. corner of Polk
and Market streets, saw the flames IN
side the grocery store just after Q
o'clock He turned in an alarm, and
with owen Smith, OF 65 Mott street, ran
to the back of the building and broke
In the windows of the Maduza fat
The whole family was panic-stricken,
too scared to know what to do. Doyle
grabbed the smallest child and Smith
took the next, driving the frantic
father and mother ahead of them, with
the other children. They escaped
through broken windows.
These rescues had taken but a mo-
ment, but the fire was already curling
toward the second floor, where lived
Joseph Buta. his wife and four board
ers, two girls and two men. Buta
scrambled from bed to find the floor SO
hot that 1t burned his feet. He aroused
his wife and all the others of his fam
lily, save one boarder. Joseph Stenawitz,
! whom he completely forgot In the ex-
element. But when the others had
reached the street they remembered
him and set up such q cry that half a
dozen f1remen rushed to the second
floor, finding Stenawitz suffocating In
his bed in hall room They dragged
him to a window and down a ladder to
a waiting ambulance. He was still un-
conscious when he reached the City
Hospital, but revived this morning and
viii get well.
A Mothers Heroism.
Meanwhile the damage from the
flames brought forth the heroism of
mother, in the person of Mrs. Mary
/ Rogers, who, with her husband and five
children, lived on the third floor
Alarmed by the cries, Mrs. Rogers
leaped from her bed. caught up her
youngest child, a babe of two months,
and, calling to the father to follow with
the other children, she led the way
/ doWnthe smoke-filled stairway. Flames
were leaping out from the burning
rooms but the mother never stopped
until, at the head of the second STORY
flight, she stumbled over one of the
girls who had fallen as she ran to the
street.
Mrs. Rogers fell also, and, her hand
stretched out to save herself, came in
contact with the flame, and was badly
scorched, but she never noticed this
Without dropping her child she stag
gered to her feet, down the stairs and
q moment later had gained the street
in safety, with the rest of her family
trooping on behind.
other Tenants Escape.
Michael Turen. his wife and two
capped by a narrow margin, but they
managed to get out without assistance.
Meanwhile the tenants of other houses
nearby were pouring from their flats
in all stages of dishabille, some carry
ing articles of furniture and others
with children in their arms. They
stood about in the freezing street for
more than an hour while the firemen
fought the blaze into control When
1t was finally extinguished the whole
of the first and second floors had been
completely gutted, and all the furniture
of the tenants had been burned. The
origin is unknown, though it may have
started from a stove on the ground
floor.
Maduza, the groceryman, who lost
the 5000 under his pillow, was heart
broken over his loss. He said the sum