Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-20
7 welve Tenements
and Four Factories
Destroyed in Blaze.
3 Engines Lost.
THREE MEN REPORTED
TO POLICE AS MISSING
Firemen Have Hard Battle With
Flames, Which Sweep Four
Blocks-Entire Department
Out-Fire Spread Rapidly.
TFrom a STAN Correspondence

JERSEY CITY, N. j., Aug. 20
Four factories and twelve tenements
were burned to the ground this af-
ternoon in one of the most spectacu-
lar conflagrations that ever visited
this city.
A huge triangle of four blocks,
bounded by Fairmount avenue.
Montgomery and Grand streets and
swept by the flames. The loss will
be more than $1,OoO,00O
Fire Engines Are Burned.
So fierce and resistless was the
sweep of the fire that three engines,
Nos. Z. 10 and r. were cut off where
they stood by the flames. The fire
men had to flee for their lives while
the engines were being transformed
into refuse wreckage bv the whirl-
pool of fire.
A score of men and women were
hurt, several fatally.
THE INJURED:
John Quackenbush, fireman, En-
gine No. Il; overcome with smoke:
rescued with difficulty; will probably
die.
Michael Corcoran, linesman, fire
department.; hands burned off by live
wire while at top of pole; fell to the
ground; may die.
Mrs. Cannie Bicco, 20 Fairmount
avenue; ran back into her blazing
home to rescue her forgotten baby
and fell down the stairs with the
child; three ribs fractured.
Captain Coleman, Chemical No. 4;
right ear burned off.
Fireman Walsh, Truck No. II; head
and arms cut by falling glass.
Mrs. Effie Delamore, 5S5 Grand
street; jumped from third-story win
dow; fractured hip and internal in
juries.
While the fire was at it's height
added terror was lent to the catas-
trophe by the knowledge that nifty
days, twenty known TO be rablj and
the otheis Thought 10 be, were loose
in the shelter of the s. p. c. A. at
Johnson and Grand streets.
To prevent the animals from run
ming wild officers of the society shot
them down with revolvers. Forty five
kere killed and five escaped.
The factories destroyed are those of
c. Heidi & Son. coopers, in Fairmount
avenue; the M. g. S. Sulphur Co., the
Mann Brass Foundry, and the Amos
J. Jones soap factory.
While the flames were still spread
ing, the report reached the police that
three men, Edward j. O'Connor. his
brother, William. and John Clark,
who had been in n house at go Fair
mount avenue, were missing.
4 The burned area, practically quar-
ter of a square mile in extent, was for
hours nothing but sea of flame The
firemen gave their attention solely to
fighting the spread of the blaze on
every side.
The fire broke out in the four
story plant of c. Heidi & Son, COOP
ers, AZ Fairmount avenue.
The first alarm was turned in at
1910. By the time the fire apparatus
reached the scene the cooperage was
a mass of flames and the wooden
houses nearby were beginning to
catch fire.
Alarm after alarm was sent in, un-
til the entire fire-fghting force of the
city was concentrated at the blaze.
The heat was so terrific that the men
manning the pipe lines We're forced
back repeatedly in their attempts to
check the spread of the flames.
The fire spread along Fairmount
avenue to Johnson, east to Grand
oSiOCI etilu W II SlTtel.
The tenement dwellers fled panic
stricken from the flame-swept dis
trict Police reserves fought their
way into what houses they could en-
ter to help in rescue work.
The streets surrounding the doomed
block were. cluttered with furnitl
thrown out by residents. only to be
licked up by the flames.
Vain efforts were made by the po-
lice to find If anyone had been trapped
in the burning buildings. The spread
of the fire was so rapid that it seemed
hardly credible that everyone had es-
capped.
The fear of the firemen was that
the fire would leap the street and
eat it's way right on into the densely
populated district surrounding.
Expecting that contingency, the po
lice officers in command of the fire
lines, pressed all their spare men into |
service to order the buildings cleared. |
Women and children, bearing treas
urers hastily picked up, were led out |
of the danger zone.