Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-17
ELEV
PERISH IN
FIRE TRAP
Eighth Avenue Apartment
House in New York Is
Scene of Horror--T Three
Women and Baby Die.
MANY THRILLING RESCUES
ARE MADE BY FIREMEN
Building Had No Fire Escapes
on Front and Those Who Die
Are Trapped by Flames as
They Rush to Rear-Inquiry
Is Started,

iuCJ Nuan w hEdt--1uuuu9
Is Started.
NEW YORK, April 17.--Eleven per-
sons perished in fire that swept
through 4 flve-story apartment houa8
at 741 Eighth avenue early today.
| Ten persons We're burned to death IN
the building and a woman who was
taken out succumhed to her injuries
later.
| only four of the ten bodies taken
from theatrical boarding-house,
which occupied half the building.
could be identified
THE DEAD:
WALLACE, William. forty-six years old.
| WALLACE, Mrs. Nellie, his wife.
SPENCER, Mrs. Nellie. n cloak model
DAVIS. Muriel three years old.
! DAVIS, Mrs. George O., mother of burned
| girl aud wife of nm actor.
SIX MEN, burned beyond recognition.
THE INJURED;
MEsSER, Joseph.
| WELSH, Martin.
| BURKE, Charles.
Mrs. Davis was alive when taken
from the building, but succumbed OF
| Internal injuries in q hospital The
The fire started i'm a pile of waste
in the basement of "a five and ten
cent store, which occupies the. ground
floor of the building. 1t spread rap
idly up stairways and shut off escape
by them. There were no fire-escapes
In the front OF the building and the
large number of dead and injured
was due to the refusal of the panic
stricken people to remain in the front
windows where many were rescued
by flremen. All OF the dead and in
jured We're taken from the rear rooms
and halls, where they were caught
while attempting to reach the roof
and re-escapes.
Arany Thrilling Bcscues.
One man was killed in trying to
escape over roofs. The fire was iiil-
der control in less than an hour, but
ia that time many thrilling rescuea
were made by the tirenlen working
from ladders III front and frnrc- - q.
doWs OF a nearby tenement building.
The proprietort OF the roomins
Ihouse. n negro janitor and several er
The rescued occupants Of rooms in
the building We're summoned to APP
pear today before Coroner Timothy
Healy, who instituted an investiga-
ton.
The spectacular feature of the fire
/ was a rescue staged by Captain
Thomas W Smith, of Engine Cons
pany No. .. He and squad of men
We're sent around into 5ol West For
| ty-siXth street, the rear of which
backs mp to the rear of the burning
building, the two being separated by
an air and light shaft five feet wide
and almost entirely walled in.
While they We're trying to get =
line of hose across this tive-foot gap
n man appeared in one of the smokes
filled rooms across the way. His
window was on n level with that oc-
cupied by the firemen, but nine feet
away. He seemed ready to jump
and Captain Smith shouted:
Don't jump. I'll get you'll
Drags Man from Death.
He ran back into the building and
found q frail ten-foot stepladder,
which he put across the airshaft to
the window from which the man was
ready to jump, and told him to crawl
over as the ladder would hold but ono
of them. The water was turned on
SO it would throw only a small stream
and keep the flames off the man.
| Smith then straddled the window
sill and. with his right leg dangling
fifty feet above the areway, told five
men of No. 26 to hold on to his left
and reached as far as he could for
the creeping figure on the ladder.
Just as he clasped the mans hand
the ladder broke and the man drop
ped, but Smith clung to him. The
hose also fell to the areway.
both Are Saved.
Great as his strength is, Smitf.
could not lift the dangling man into
the window. But for the Ave men
holding to his leg, both he and the
man he was trying to save would
have plunged TO the concrete. Finally,
the five firemen succeeded in dragging
them both through the window.
The rescued man was Louis Berlin.
thirty two one of the roomers.
Soon groans We're heard coming
from the bottom of the air-shaft A
line OF hose had fallen from a window
TO the bottom Of the shaft, and Fire.
man John l.. Doran volunteered TO
slide down it and aid the injured man.
He negotiated the slide successfully,
but when he reached the bottom it
| was so dark he could not see any
thing A dashlight was lowered 10
him and he found an unconscious
youth about eighteen years old.
Doran found a ladder against the
wall and also that q thirty-foot fence
enclosed one side of the air-shaft from
the cellar to the second floor. With
the limp man over his shoulder he
climbed the ladder, and fremen had q
ladder on the other side waiting for
him. The man was taken away in an
ambulance and the police did not get
| his name,
Mrs. Davis, who died in Polyclinic
| Hospital, was found unconscious Ia
her room with her child, who was
dead. Mrs. Davis, from her position.
little Muriel from the flames.
The store people are exonerated
from blame for the storage of ex
eelsior and rubbish that caused the
fire. That, it is alleged, was care
lessly left in the cellar by some one
connected with the rooming house.
Coroner Healy is making an investi-
cation, assisted by Deputy Fire Mar
shall Rudolph r. Dillman and the
police. He will have all those held as
material witnesses before him later
in the day.
III. 6. Judge Haight Will