Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-03
27 PERISH AS FIRE
SWEEPS CROWDED
HOTEL IN BOSTON
l78 Human Waits Are Caught
in LOdging-hOuse Fire
Trap.
MANY INJURED AS THEY
JUMP FROM WINDOWS
Most of Bodies So Badly Burned
They Will Never Be
Identified.

BOSTON. Dec. 3.-Twenty- seven
men were killed in a fire which swept
through the upper floors of the Ar
cadia Hotel, a lodginghouse. in South
End, early today. Others arc missing
Scores were taken to hospitals suf-
fering from burns and injuries re-
ceived in jumping from windows.
Nearly all the bodies We're terribly
burned and mutilated. making identi-
fication impossible The victims We're
men in poor circumstances who had
resorted to the place for a nights
lodging. Caught in the crowded
hunks on the top floor of the five
story brick building and in the small
rooms on the fourth floor. they were
helpless. When they We're aroused
the stairways were in flames and
there was mad rush for the fire
escapes at the rear
Many Are Rescued.
Practically all the men were naked.
Many were rescued by the firemen
and police. Some escaped by walk
ing a shaky plank stretched to an
adjoining building or by jumping
across q fiye-foot alley to nelghboring
roofs.
The property loss is only $4,000
The Arcadia was located at the cor
ner Of Washington and Laconia
streets. The lower floors were occu-
pied by stores.
The only body identified was that of
George f. Adams, of South Boston.
One of the injured is Frank Harris,
of South Market street, Chicago.
Before the ruins had cooled two in
vestigations were begun. One was
undertaken by the grand jury, which
viewed the scene and prepared to
hear testimony regarding the manner
in which the owners and lessees of
the property had observed the build
ing and fire regulations.
Another profile by the building in
spection department of the city was
started under orders from Mayor
Fitzgerald.
The fire apparently started in
hallway closet on the street floor.
The flames swept UP the wooden
stalrways and burned through the
roof. According to William Walsh,
the night clerk, there were 17S
lodgers in the building when the fire
was discovered by a passing newsboy.
After LuT11lB III an Ut EuSHtu
into the building. awakening the men
with his shouts
The top floor was one large room,
filled 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 = dhe
centre. Nearly all those occupying
rooms in the front OF the building
perished The men in the rear rooms,
opening on the flre-escape, had locked
the doors when they went to bed. and
those in front were unable to reach
the f1re-escape.
Victims Jumped from Roof.
When the firemen arrived flames
We're shooting twenty feet in the air
from the windows of the fourth and
fifth floors, and the fire-escapes were
soon a mass of shrieking, struggling
humanity. Despite shouts OF assur-
ance from below, three men jumped
from the roof. Two were instantly
killed. The third, who had wrapped
a mattress about himself, escaped
with a few bruises. Net lines were
quickly stretched by the firemen, and
many were rescued In this manner.
Others were taken down ladders, with
the flames sweeping about them. The
intense heat soon drove the fire,
men from their ladders and made il
necessary to fight the fire from the
street and from the elevated railway
structure running in front of the
building. The fire was in the heart of
a crowded tenement and lower-class
hotel district. Hundreds of occupants
of adjoining buildings rushed to the
street when the great quantity of ap-
paratus called ont by threee alarms
changed up to their doors.
Scores of excited foreigners crowded
about the burning building and inn
peded the firemen in their work A
large squad Of police had difficulty in
forcing back the throng. It was
nearly an hour after the firemen ar
rived before they were able to enter
the lodging house.
Sight Is Gruesome,
The first man to ascend a smoking
ladder shouted MY God, boys. that
place is Uttered with dead"
Medical Examiner George b. Nc
Grath arrived shortly afterward, and
soon was Joined by DIR. Timothy
Leary, associate medical examiner. IT
was gruesome sight as the bodies
were removed in the early dawn. On
lockers turned away as the burned
and mangled bodies were lowered. one
by one, to the street and placed In
wicker baskets.