New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-29
When st. Marks Hotel
BlaZes He Warns Mis-
tress of Danger
200 FLEE TO STREET;
SMALL BOY A HERO
Fights Way to Sixth Floor
and Rescues Mother
and Sister

If Miss Clara Turnor had turned an
Indifferent ear to the frenzied yelping
Of her fox terrier last night, some OF
the two hundred persons who, a Re"
minutes later, fed from the burning
st. Marks Avenue Hotel. in Brooklyn
might never have reached the street
alive. In spite Of the terriers warning
"A score Of men, women and children
were forced 10 Chamber down fire &C.
oapez to safety, and three alarms were
turned in before the flames were sub
ducd.
The ST. Marks Avenue Hotel is six
story brick structure. It was erected
more than generation ago on the
block bounded by Bedford and Rodgers
Avenues. The fire last night was dis
covered shortly after o'clock on the
second floor. Before the engines ar
rived it had eaten its way TO an arr
shaft and mad rushed up TO the sixth
floor. where Il mushroomed and burned
out the entire story.
/
y. Y. had a room on the second floor.
At o'clock her dog began 10 whine
and wander uneasily about the room.
Then he went 10 the door and began
to scratch and howl vigorously. A hot
puff Of smoke rolled into his mistress's
face when she opened the door
She Gives Alarm
Shouting Fire." she ran down
stairs to the hotel Office and turned in
the alarm. Most of the patrons OF the
hotel escaped by the stairs to the
street. few were bewildered by the
smoke and clambered down the fire
escapes. When Deputy Chief Lally ar
rived he turned in a third alarm, but.
even with this reinforcement, it took
the fremen two hours to extingush
the flames, fed as they were on the
tinder-dry beams and furnishings of
the old hotel.
On the third, fourth and fifth floors
fire did little damage except in the
direct neighborhood of the air shaft
up which the flames roared The sec
ond floor was badly burned. and the
top floor almost entirely destroyed
Il was on the sixth floor that Mrs.
Mary Schneider, housekeeper of the
hotel. lived with her husband Peter,
baker; Peter, jr., thirteen years old.
and Elizabeth, three The husband was
away, and the boy was down in the
hotel kitchen, washing dishes, when the
fire was discovered. Peter. jr., heard
Miss Turner's cry of "fre!" He was
in the basement, and his mother was
up six smoke-choked fights Of stairs,
down which frightened patrons of the
hotel we're pouring Peter did not
join in the fight TO the street.
He began 20 climb. He was long
while reaching the sixth floor, for the
air grew hotter and harder to breathe
as he assembled. But he was glad tina,
he had ventured when he plunged,
painting and half strangled. into his
mothers room and found her lying
asleep on her bed. with her little
daughter beside her.
Peter, Jr., Saves His Family
Peter reused them both. and. with
Elizabeth in his arms, helped his
mother down the fire escape. He was
pretty tired when he got his family
to the street, but he grinned happily
when the crowd cheered him.
Mrs. Emma Letferts, fifty-fve, who
was i'll in bed on the sixth floor, was
carried down the fire escape by Rob-
ert h. Davis, who occupied the room
next to hers. Firemen of Truck Com
pany 1872. the first piece of apparatus
70 arrive. helped other patrons down
he long iron ladders.
The turmoil of the fire brought most
OF the audience Of William Fox's
Bedford Theatre into the street to
watch the blaze. Chief Lally est
mated that the damage would amount
to $4,000.