New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-12-23
Sudden Epidemic Of ConfIagra.
tions in Manhattan and
Brooklyn Keeps Police
and Firemen Busy.
MANY NARROWLY ESCAPE
Marshal Brophy Will Investigate
Two Williamsburg Fires,
Which He Believes to
Have Been of In
cendiary Origin.

| III,
| in at 7:3O o'clock last night. resulted in
narrow escapes for several scores Of
| tenants many rescues by police ana
! firemen and "A damage Of SoOOO0 TO
tenants and owners of buildings. A
half dozen firemen were temporarily
put out of commission by smoke and
| injuries and the complications at the
Brooklyn fires, brought about by the
sending in Of a double alarm by two
excited tenants, made il necessary for
Deputy Chief .Lally to send in four
more alarms before he could get to-
gether sufficient apparatus to fight the
succeeding fires. which followed the
first in quick succession in the Will
iamsburg district.
Mrs. Bertha Johnson, whose apart
ment is on the top floor Of the Stam-
ford, a six story elevator apartment at
Nos. 502 and J04 West 18th street,
Manhattan, was working around gas
stove in her kitchen about 1:3O o'clock
last night, when a lace curtain fIoated
out over the flame and caught fire. She
telephoned the elevator boy, who ran
10 Engine Company A, next door
Meanwhile Mrs. Johnson ran TO the fire
escape and began to scream for help
Patrolmen Michael Batto and John
Buechler of the West 10Th street sta
ton, heard the cries and ran into the
building The elevator boy was still
at the fire house, so the two officers
boarded the elevator and ran it up TO
the top floor. The door leading 10 the
apartment was locked. and when they
shouted 10 Mrs. johnson to open II she
answered that she couldn't get to II
because the hallway was full Of smoke.
Batto and Buechler beat down the door
with their nightsticks and entered.
Two Carried Out.
Tie policemen carried out Mrs. john
son and male lodger, whose name she
would not give. The flames by this
time had eaten up through the kitchen
ceiling and had begun 10 appear
through the roof when the ftremen at
rived. They turned in AN alarm and
began trying to get the dodgers out
The elevator boy got on the scene
with the engine company and tele-
phoned all the apartments that the
house was on fire. The majority ot
the tenants did not wait to ride down,
but took the stairway as means OF
exit. The firemen found q few minutes
later that all of the twenty-five fam
lilies in the building were ont with
the exception of Mrs. Alice Hall, who
lived on the third floor with her daugh-
ter, Alberta, who is a paralytic. Both
were carried out TO the street.
Patients in the male ward at 81.
Luke's Hospital who saw the flames
had to be quieted, and nurses and ply
sicians went through the building re-
assuring them. Firemen John Cook
and James Burke, of Engine Company
A., were overcome by smoke, but were
revived later. John kinsler, of the
same company, was cut by falling
timber. Deputy Chief Mccartney es-
timated the total damage TO the build
ing and furnishings at $4,000.
At practically the same moment at
which the alarm was turned In for the
Manhattan fire the Brooklyn fire fight
ers were stirred 10 action by two eX-
cited tenants of four story house at
No. 29-Siegel street Smoke coming
from the cellar threw the occupants Of
the building into a panic and two ac-
tive inmates of the house started out
TO send I'm an alarm. One ran to the
corner OF Johnson avenue and Lorimer
street and pulled a box. The other
sprinted TO Broadway and Throop ave-
nue. and sent in the second alarm. The
double alarm resulted in the bringing
Of a half dozen engines and four hook
and ladder companies to put out the
fire in the cellar.
Just as the firemen got into action
fire started in glove and corset store
run by Isaac Eisberg In a three story
frame building at No. $50 Broadway.
The alarm that was turned in brought
no apparatus, owing to the double
alarm from Siegel street. Deputy Chief
Langon sized up The situation and sent
In a second, third. and finally fourth
alarm. Deputy Chief Lally, In charge
of Brooklyn. then made his appearance
with some apparatus, but by that time
the wooden structure was all ablaze
and was threatening nearby buildings.
Elevated Structure on Fire.
The flames soon set fire to the ele-
waited station on Broadway. and spread
in quick succession into the buildings
st Nos. 616 67S and GA Broadway.
With the arrival Of some Of the belated
apparatus from the Siegel street blaze
Chief Lally began to distribute his
forces and work out a plan for check
ing the flames. He was interrupted,
however, by the news that there was
big fire at No. 20 Humboldt street. An
engine company was sent around to
attend to it, and before the conflagra-
ton which they found raging in the
cellar could be drowned out il worked
through the walls into the building next
door. After an hours brisk work the
men got this fire under control and
returned TO Broadway, where they