New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-04
Doors to Escapes Locked
and Trapped Victims
Are Roasted Alive.
ABLE TO IDENTIFY
ONLY ONE CORPSE
Bodies So Charred as To Be
Unrecognizable - Eight
Probes Under Way.

were NAl lltA " w dNil llA a l4lt W lllN II
swept the upper floors of the Arcadia
Hotel a cheap lodging house in the South
End. early this morning. z
Eight separate Investigations of the fire
are under way.
Some OF the doors leading TO the fire
escapes are said 10 have been locked.
and unable 10 break them open the men
were either roasted alive or killed BY
jumping from the windows and roof
Only one of the victims has been iden-
tilted and some Of the bodies are so
charred that Identification will be i'm
possible.
The manager of the lodging house was
summoned before the Board of Health
only two days ago and warned 10 enforce
the regulations prohibiting smoking in the
rooms.
The victims Of the fire were men in poor
circumstances who had resorted 70 the
place for a nights lodging. Many Of
them were negroes Caught in the
crowded hunks on the top floor of the
hve-story brick building and in the small
rooms on the fourth floor, they were help
less
were in flames and there was mad rush
for the Microscopes at the rear. Prac-
tically all the men were naked.
Many were rescued by the iremen and
police. Fifty escaped by walking a shaky
plank stretched 10 an adjoining building
or jumping across a tive-foot alley TO
neighboring roofs.
The property loss is estimated at go 0oo.
The Arcadia was located at the corner Of
Washington and Laconia streets. The
lower floors were occupied by stores.
The fire apparently started. no one
knows how, in a hallway closet on the
street floor. The flames swept up the
wooden stairways and burned through the
roof
According 10 William Walsh. the night
clerk there were Us dodgers I'm the build
ing when the fire was discovered by
passing newsboy. After turning in an
alarm he rushed into the building,
awakening the men with his shouts.
The top floor was one large room, filed
with cots and bunks. on the fourth floor,
where the loss OF life was heaviest. there
were thirty tiny rooms. like cells, with
Two cots in each. a hallway ran through
the centre. Nearly all those occupying
rooms on the front OF the building per-
ished.
The men in the rear rooms, opening on
the fire escapes, had locked the doors when
they went TO bed. and those in front were
unable 70 reach the FIRE escapes.
When the fremen arrived flames were
shooting twenty feet in the air and the
Ere escapes and the roof were mass oC
shrIeking. struggling humanity. Despite
shouts Of assurance from below. three
men jumped from the roof. Two were
instantly killed. The third, who had
wrapped a mattress about himself.
escaped with few bruises.
Life nets were quickly stretched by the
l-emen. and many were rescued in this
manner. Others were taken down lad
ders. with the flames sweeping about
them.
II was nearly an hour after the fremen
arrived before they were able 10 enter the
lodging house. The first man to ascend a
smoking ladder shouted: my God, boys
that place is Uttered with dead"
Most important of the days inquiries
was that begun ny the Suffolk County
grand jury Directed by District Attor-
ney Joseph &. Pelletier. the jurymen paid
q visit 10 the hotel while the ruins were
still smouldering. They saw the remains
Of cots laid side by side In general
dormitory on the fifth floor. and narrow
boxiike rooms on floors below, in which
privacy was obtained by inmates for a
few cents more than was paid by the
dormitory occupants.
The cause OF the fire was not deter
mined
A large quantity o. painters materials,
District Attorney PeIletier said, was
found in a closet On the second floor, but
apparently II had not been touched by the
flames.
Later the jury went 10 the City Hos
pital morzue and other lodging houses in
the vicinity were afterward inspected by
the jury in order 70 see how those houses
were conducted in reference % the safety
Of the occupants at night
Other Investigations were the Official in
quest By Medical Examiner Leary. in
Quiries By the Fire Commissioner. the
Building Commissioner and the Board OF
Health, the City Police Department. the
State Police. and personal research by
Mayor Fitzgerald.
The Arcadia Hotel was conducted by
the Lyons Hotel Company, which has a
chain Of lodging houses in the big East
ern cities. " II. and J. y. Lyons com
pose the company, which owns seven
other lodging houses here and fifteen III
New York, Brooklyn, Newark and Jersey
City
Joseph G Lyons. Of Brooklne, president
Of the firm, believes that the fire started
under the stairs in tine main hallway
Within & few months three other mys-
terious fires have been discovered there
he said. This fire was undoubtedly set
Search Of the dcad developed little 70
assist in Identification II revealed the
financial circumstances Of the men when
only 81 ~ was gathered from the effects
Of all the victims.