Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-10-02
PIVE5 HER BLIND
MOTHER FROM
|. FIERY DEATH
Ms, R. E. Murphy Rouses Fifty
.oa-tment House Tenants, Who
Flee in Night Clothes.

.s..- arriving her blind mother
--,- snoke and flames to a place
.s.-v Mrs. R. E. Murphy, wife of
ar-.avee Of the Morrow Transfer
r--.-r spread an alarm which
.-.1s--- saved the lives Of many 9th
.a-. Wednesday night when fire
80. ..- In the Frederick Apart
-. So 352 Whitehall street. Ten
80 The building were profuse in
,-st~--..se Of her heroism Thursday.
~sa e~- which was discovered on
j.. ss-.-5 floor Of the building, where
..s yr-97ys reside, was brought I'M
control by fremen after about
,,a,- aa~age had been done and so
-.-s.~s forced TO flee in their night
clothes
s-o--,v after Ii o'clock Mrs. Muir
..- WAS aroused by a call from her
r,,.-a- Who occupies an adjoining
room
ara Vol smell smoker" she asked.
Carried Mother to Street.
rus- after the words were uttered
.,s-s VAS a roar from the rear of the
,m.s.-e as sheet of plastering gave
,.sr before the flames, and the Muir
49,. sr.r,mant was Illuminated by the
r-fz r-nt Of the fire.
Swinging from her bed, Mrs. Muir
m. opened the door to the hallway
md was met by a sheet of fame
Screaming Fire" she ran to the bed
# her mother and, picking the aged
uau up bodily carried her through
trs fire and smoke, down the single
qtrpt If stairs into the street.
Returning to the building, Mrs.
,,nraav then started the work Of
Spreading the alarm. Sleepy eyed
MEN women and children answered
aa, knocks and screams slowly, then
rausv Joined in rousing the others
Returns for Her Husband.
with an possible speed, Mrs Muir
rnr returned 10 her apartment to
make sure whether her husband had
succeeded in getting through the
flames. She met him halfway on the
stairs. Passing him, she burst through
fine smoke and secured a blanket for
her mother and a wrapper for her
self By his time the fire engines be-
gan To arrive, scarcely four minutes
after the alarm had been turned in.
The hremen, led by Chief Cum
mfngs burst into the building. A
number of the tenants were not yet
out Of their apartments. The f1remen
WITH axes broke in the doors and car
ried many from their beds to places
of safety.
After an hours battle the firemen
succeeded in extinguishing the flames.
According to Chief Cummings the
FIRE must have originated in the base
meut of the apartment house. He at
trlouted it TO a spark from defective
wiring and said that undoubtedly 1t
had been smoldering since near 6
o'clock in the evening.
Tenants Praise Rescuer.
Only one Of the three apartments
through which the air shaft runs is
occupied J. T. Warner, employed in
the superintendents office Of the
Western Union Telegraph Company,
and family were sound asleep in
this and had it not been for Mrs.
AurNHy's screams Mr.. Warner de-
-laTe5 Thursday morning that he and
his wife and 4-year-old child would
probably have been burned to death,
for had her alarm come few min
Utes later the exit would have been
blocked by the flames. AS 1t was they
escaped just in time.
Al. the tenants Thursday gathered
around Mrs Murphy and many of
them with tears in their eyes thanked
The modest little woman.
The building is owned by F. J. Cool
edge and is leased by Forrest &
George Adair. One of the agents for
Aaair Brothers estimated the loss
eo1servatiyely at $4,000.
n