New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-26
Thousands See Flames
Trap Twenty-Five on
Houston St. Roof
BY HAIR,
ONE is RESCUED
Row Over ST Kept Victims
in Building-Three Hurt
In Blaze Nearby

twenty-five persons, fifteen Of them
women, were trapped by fire on the
upper floors of the seven story loft
building at 21 East Houston Street,
early las. night
Two Of the women were killed as
they plunged from the roof to a lad
der two floors beneath. Eight women
leaped from the roof to the safety Of
a life net stretched on the top of a
tenement house. Two others were car
ried unconscious from a fire escape
that was wreathed in flames; another
was swung by her hair TO roof after
she had dropped into the arms Of a
fireman balanced on a scaling ladder.
Thousands Watch Fires
While the fire, which broke out a
few minutes before 7 o'clock. was at
its height, another blaze swept the
FIVE story loft building at 2O3 Greene
Street. The two fires were within half
mile Of each other, and the thousands
who packed the smoke filled streets of
lower Manhattan could see plainly the
flames from both buildings.
Four alarms were turned in for each
blaze. and every piece of apparatus
south Of Fifty-ninth Street responded.
Forty companies engaged in fighting
tho two fires; twenty others left their
stations to cover up" for the ones
that had rushed to Houston and Greene
Streets.
The dead at the Houston Street fire
were:
Anna Slemovitz, thirty, Of s4s EASY
Ninth Street Identified by her fiance.
Unidentified woman. about twenty
five. known only as Mary.
There were no serious injuries.
Three Men Injured
At the Greene Street blaze three men
were hurt. One Of them. who dived
from second story window to a paved
courtway, probably will die.
Early this morning fremen were still
searching the ruins Of the Houston
Street building for additional bodies.
Three girls were reported to hay.
leaped from the towering roof to a
debris covered areaway. Several men
known to have been in the building
when the fire broke out are unaccount-
ed for.
The two deaths are directly due to
the fact that when Miss Slemowitz. a
needle worker In the employ OF Louis
?. Kevitz, received her pay envelope at
the close Of her days work yesterday
she found 1t contained 81 less than shs
had expected. She fingered in tho fac
tory-occupying the fifth and sixth
floors Of the building-to argue with
Revit1- She kept with her, to help her
support her claim, fourteen other
women needle workers.
Trapped by Blaze
While tho argument over the missing
dollar was At It's height Are broke out
three floors beneath. Kevit1 and his
women employees, their differences for
gotten, fed to the roof Hardly an
hour later Miss Slemowitz's body was
lying motionless on the floor Of q saloon
just across Crosby Street from tho
burning building, and her fance, who
refused his name, was bending over
the lIfeless form, Historically shouting
into the ears that could not hear.
When. the fire accurred Kevitz and
his employees were on the fifth floor
They rushed into the hallway outside,
and Just as they were dashing toward
the freproof stairway a voice from
above shouted:
"Come up to the roofl Everything
Is safe here!"
They followed the bidding Of the
hidden voice, cropping their way up the
stairway to the open air above. They
stood huddled together near the south
ledge, calling for help to the hundreds
that were packed on the roof of
tenement house beneath them. bu.
separated from the burning building
by a wide court
Firemen to Rescue
After what seemed ages Of waiting
the little knot on the roof Of the burn
ing building saw the throng on the
roof beneath open narrow lane, IN
which fremen appeared.
There was q moment OF breathless
consultation beneath. Then one Of ths
firemen shot life line to the roof Of
the loft building. So hysterical were
tho women above that none Of them
dared grasp the line and make 1t fast.
The trapped women saw a ladder
nloughing through the throng on tho
roof below. II was hoisted into the
air and was dropped across the court
way to the side Of the burning build
ing. But It's crest missed the top
Iedgs by more than six feet.
Two fremen began to crawl slowly
along the ladder which spanned tho
courtway. Miss Slemowitz and the un-
identified woman, excited to the point
Of frenzy, could no longer be held back
by the others. They threw themselves
over the ledge together. Both struck
sgainst the firemen on the fragile lad
der. Then all four rolled together over
the ladders rounds and onto the roof
OF the tenement house. The hremen
ssrsped injury, but the women were