The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-07-25
S|NGSINC IN FLAMES
Think Fire Was Set by ES-
capped COny.Ct.
PRISONERS DISPLAY BRAVERY
Two Fighting Flames Overcome by
Smoke and Sent to Hospital-Beck-
er and Four Gunmen Greatly
Worried, but In No Danger.

Ossining. n. Y, July 23.-Three shops
of Sing Sing prison burned to the
ground. with loss that Warden
James Nj. Clancy puts at $150,000
The fire was fought mainly by con
victs, who showed great bravery. 1t
destroyed the lumber storage, the fine
cart and wagon plant and the mat
shop, leaped the prison wall and licked
up the ice house, burned down wood
en- gate in the wall and caused 1.20O
men locked in their cells to raise an
uproar that could be heard for miles.
The men locked up We're not in dan
ger at any time. The fire WAS put out
before 1t reached the foundry and the
knitting shop.
No one knows how the blaze started
Fire was first noticed in the room of
the mat shop where rope Is braided
A convict saw a flicker of light along
the floor. He gave the alarm and. with
the others in the shop, was marched
out and across the yard to the cell
block.
Instantly work was stopped in the
other shops, the men formed in twos
and marched to their cells. Two hun
dred who are trained as fire brigade
were excepted. The rest We're locked
up, and the guards FASTENED to the
yard. Warden Clancy, the guards and
the TRUSTEES of the fire brigade hurried
to the mat shop, the prisons fire
pumps were started, and the guards
and TRUSTEES manned the hose lines
The whole mat shop was in flames.
Convicts Direct Streams.
The convict fire fighters didn't wait
for orders, but scaled the roofs of ad-
Joining shops and directed streams
from them. Some who We're working
from the roof and from windows Of
the humber shop were driven out Of it
in few minutes by its catching fire
Every vantage of the cart and wagon
shop building was occupied by men
with hose, but IN spite of hard work
the shop was ablaze in half an hour
The oonvicts and guards were driven
J TO the ground again and worked from
the foundry building, an old and In
fidmmabte shack, and the knitting fac
tory.
The prison siren, used 10 signal es-
capes, WIS sounded. It is audible In q
ten mile radius. 1t was blown n
short, staccato notes instead of the
usual terrific wall announcing an es-
cape.
The Ossining fire department had
been struggling TO get its apparatus up
the steep hill leading to the prison
road. AS flames burst from the roof Of
the cart and wagon shop, one of the
prisons newest and best buildings, the
village firemen arrived and Joined the
prison fire fighters. They were able to
help Keep the blaze from going further
and to stop that line Of it which had
| burned the north gate and the ice
house
The prison describes the men lock ed
in their cells-1,200 Of them-as "order-
ly'' in spite of their racket, because
they made no more noise than is usual
after a prisoners escape. They raised
the same tremendous din few nights
ago when Kurt Schoenherr, burglar,
escaped from the prison. Schoenherr
hasn't been found and has been
thought TO be hiding inside the prison
wall. 1t was the theory Of the prison
ers that he had set the fire. The con
victs with the loyalty in misery that Is
peculiar to Sing Sing are sure that
Schoenherr failed to get outside the
wall and. seeing that he was going to
be starved into surrendering himself,
set fire to the mat shop and perished
in the flames rather than give up his
struggle for freedom.
Two Overcome by Smoke.
However that may be, there was no
break for liberty on the part of the 200
convicts fighting the fire, although such
a break might easily have succeeded.
| These men took such risks that two of
them were overcome by smoke and
heat and had to be sent to the hospital.
Warden Clancy said that he could not
praise too much the work of his prison
brigade. 1t was an hour and a half
after the alarm that the fire was got
| under control.
Least noisy Of all the prisoners We're
the men in the death cells-Becker
the four gunner and others They
were badly worried when word of the
fire reached them, but were reassured
by their keeper in few minutes. I'm
like the other prisoners, they could not
see the blaze. They were in no danger