New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-16
5 DIE in 3 FIRES;
2 WOMEN VICTIMS
Cripple Watches Death Ap-
proach Her, Trapped
by Flames.
TWO CHILDREN LOST
IN EAST SIDE BLAZE
Son Gives Life in Vain Effort to
Save His Mother-Many
in Peril.

IN PERU.
Two women. man and two chill
dren were burned 10 death yesterday
in fires in Brooklyn and on the East
Side. one Of the women was cripple
who watched the approach OF the
death bringing flames. unable to move.
This woman's son lost his life in an
heroic attempt 10 rescue her.
The children were asleep, alone IN
their mothers fat, when the fire when
resulted IN their death started.
Mrs. Anna Halstead, a helpless, bed
ridden cripple. sixty-five years Old was
burned to death last night in her nat
on the fourth floor Of the tenement
house building at 2s9 Columbia ST.
Brooklyn. Harry Halstead, her twenty
three year-old son, met the same fate
IN a gallant. but futile attempt to save
her.
Additionally tragic appears young
Halsteads death, for his engagement
10 Miss Rose Carter. Of pa Baltic ST.
had lust been announced, and their
wedding WAS planned for the near
future.
Mrs. Halstead employed Mrs
Ellen Meade, seventy-six years OF age
es a sort Of servant Of all work. yes
,erday evening Mrs. Meade, after filing
two lamps with kerosene OIL struck q
match to light them.
The burning end fell to the floor un-
noticed by the woman and set fire TO
tablecloth on which some Of the oil
had been spilled II burst into flames
instantly and the flames quickly spread
70 the oil can and lamps, exploding
them.
Terrified by the explosion and the
flames. Mrs. Meade ran screaming from
the fiat in search Of help. There was
no one on the third floor, and the woman
lost time there looking for assistance
before running down 10 the second. In
the mean time some children playing
in Summit street noticed the fire and
turned in an alarm.
Unable TO move from her bed, Mrs.
Halstead could do nothing but endure
the agony while waiting deaths re-
lease
Harry Halstead was talking to Da-
wilson. a bartender and saloonkeeper
right across the street from the tene-
rent house when he first heard Of the
fire. He rushed up to his mothers nat'
which was then a mass OF names
Davidson followed him, with several
other men who were in the saloon at
the time.
MY mother is in there" the young
man cried.
Davidson grabbed him as he started
to rush into the burning fiat, but the
how shook himself free and dashed into
the kitchen. which was then burning
fiercely and filled with fire and smoke.
When the police and fremen arrived
and the latter had put out the fire they
found his body halfway across the
kitchen. He was lying with his head
facing the direction Of his mothers
I room.
During The mothers absence two small
children. the elder only three years old
were burned to death Yesterday in a fir'
which did about $500 damage to the fa
occupied by the family of Abraham
kirsch on the third floor Of the siX-storS
tenement house at 52l East nth ST.
I'm Williamsburg Mrs. Bernard Fried
man was burned TO death while baking If
her apartment in 102 Boerum ST. The
woman tried TO smother the flames with
he'd covers. but they ignited, and she va:
dead when her husband returned from
calling for help.
The victims of The East Side blaze were
asleep when the fire started. Rose
Kirsch. three years old, was on couch
while her thirteen months old brother
Isidor. lay i'm a carriage. lie was burned
badly about the body, while his sister
Who evidently tried TO escape, was found
dead under the couch.
When Mrs. Kirsch came home and
learned what had happened she tainted
After being revived she refused TO be
comforted. filing the noighborhood with
her weeping and wailing.
The flames ragged out OF the windows
of the building and across to the house
at 5i9. where they ran mp to fiat on the
fourth floor, devastated two rooms ano
cleaned out the kitchen of fat on the
NTH floor
One Of the first hremen TO reach the
blaze was Raymond Seaman Of Engine
g. He was cut on the arm by fyine
glass and was taken TO ST. Marks Hospi-
tai. Patrolman Gross had his face, hair
and eyebrows burned.