New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-02-23
Flames Sweeping Board
ing House Hall Drive Oc-
cupants to Windows.
MAN AND WOMAN DIE
STRUGGLING TO ROOF
Boarder in Leap Struck Dead by
a Sign-Guests at Claridge
Watch Rescues from Rooms.

A woman and four men were hllleu
and another man was badly injured
Yesterday morning in the fire tha'
swept with startling rapidity from the
basement TO the roof o. the five story
Colonial restaurant and theatrical
boarding house at 15' West Forty
fourth Street. behind the Criterion
Theatre and opposite the Hotel Gar
idge. -,
windows OF the neighborlng hotels and
from the sidewalks. The wooden STAIR.
WAYS and halls of the lower hoors oil
the boarding house were turned into
blazing furnace before Deputy Chief
smoky Joe" Martin arrived with the
first apparatus. B. shat time II was
foo late TO save the .len and womef
who had been trapped on the upper
floors.
The dead are:
Emily Dobitsch, housekeeper, thirty
Thomas Keratsas, proprietor, thirty
five.
seven.
Peter Janas. waiter, thirty-onc.
Thomas Mustoropulis, kitchen assist
ant, fcrty-two.
The injured: ,..
Arthur Nelson. actor. Polytechnic
Hospital; face, arms and ieet oadly
burned; condition serious.
The fire started in the kitchen OF the
Colonial restaurant. on the GROUND floor
Of the boarding house. An overneated
stove is believed TO be the cause
though one of the walters who arrived
at 1915 said he met Gregorious Gena-
Gus. a kitchen man, carrying on; "a pan
Of blazing fat. which he dropped, set
ting FIRE 20 a wooden partition. Patrol
men O'Neil and Leahy. of the West
Fortv-seventh Street station. seeing
the fire from the street. forced the
flcnt door. Repealed By wall OF
fame. Leahy smashed window on
the first floor and entered.
Crawl Lodges TO Safety.
When the fire started there were
about twenty people asleep ~ the
house, few OF them actors. There
were many hairbreadth escapes 10y
crawling along window Lodges, by which
route several reached safety in the
neighboring house.
Philip Matthews and his wife, Ethel,
occupying a room on the second floor
front. were awakened by their alarm
clock Just in time 10 save Themselves
and 10 awaken sleepers by shouting
through the smoke filled hall. The
blazing stairway cut of escape, so
Matthews walked along the coping 10
the neiuhboring window and then
IA, of hi.
On tho floor above. Mary Smith and
Elizabeth Montgomery crossed 10 the
next house ln the same manner.
Antonio, aroused by Matthew's shout
tried 10 escape along the ledge. When
within n few feet Of the window he
wavered and. standing erect, hurled
himself toward the iron bar that sup
ported sign projecting from the floor
below. lie struck the bar with his
neck and was almost decapitatcd. lie
struck the sidewalk dead.
Christine Peterson. an actress. wa
crouching ready to jump. but when she
saw Antonio killed she shrank back. She
was saved by n patrolmaN.
Il was almost an hour before the fire
Was sufficiently under control TO permit
recovery Of the bodies. Peter Janas
was found dead in his bed on the sec
ond floor. IN the hallway another man
had died while trying to escape to the
Aoor above. On the top floor. within
q few feet Of the ladder 20 the roof
the proprietor, Keratsas. and his house
keeper, Emily Dobitsch. died from suf
location. From the position Of tho
bodies Kerstsas had been trying Ia
drag the housekeepcr to safety when
fclled All Of the bodies were taken
/ to the Polytechnic Hospital after being
identified by the dead proprietor''
brother.