The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-11-05
10 PERISH IN
MISSION FIRE
Salvation Army Barracks al
Paterson, n. J., Burned.
"a OTHERS ARE INJURED
Eighteen Were Burned to Death and
One Dies of Injuries-Many Thrill,
ira Rescues.

One Dies of Iniuries-Many Thrill,
irg Reseues.
Paterson, N. j., Nov. 5.-Nineteen
lives were lost in a fire that destroy
ed the Paterson Salvation Army Res.
cue Mission, AZ Mill street.
All of the victims were men. the
majority of them homeless.
Eighteen were burned to death,
(, their charred bodies being found in
the building after the fire was out.
The nineteenth man died in the hos
pital, where he was taken with thir-
teen others, seriously injured by leap
ing from windows or being crushed in
wild stampede from the flames.
About twenty who received minor in
juries were attended by ambulance
surgeons.
1t was believed for time that the
bodies of other victims would be found
in the cellar of the building. which
was in about four feet of water. but
search made after the water had
been pumped out failed to reveal any
more victims.
The blaze, which started in a great
store of magazines and papers in the
rear of the building and which found
fuel in heaps of kindling wood in the
yard, enveloped the building suddenly.
Policemen and detectives under Cap
tain A. J. Mcbride and Lieutenant Jo-
seph Mosely made many thrilling res
cues.
Complicated fire alarms, first tele-
phoned and then transmitted by ex-
cited persons pulling alarm boxes at
three different points, caused delay
Of several minutes in the arffvaf o.
the fire apparatus. When the police
squads, which were first to arrive,
reached the scene the building was
hopelessly covered with flames.
The police made their way into the
smoke filled structure and tried
bravely to rouse all the dodgers. They
were driven out in few minutes by
the rapidly growing flames.
Eighty-five men were known to have
been asleep in the building which Is
conducted by the Salvation Army as
haven for unfortunate men. Many
Of the dodgers were old and crippled.
Discovering quickly that the build
ing had become a furnace and that the
upper floors could not be reached from
inside, the police established life
net at the north end and yelled to the
occupants to jump.
The one complete fire escape on the
structure was located at the rear, the
heart of the flame center, and could
not be used.
Smoke dazed. crippled and frighten-
ed dodgers at first tried madly to es-
cape down the interior stairway. The
finding of five bodies lying damned in
heap at one of the front entrances
of the mission after the fire gave tes-
| timony of the tragic scene that must
have occurred there. 1t could not be
learned whether the door at this point
had been locked against egress.
Several of the imprisoned men Jump
| ed from the third and fourth floor win
dows without thought of the life net
or chance to reach it. One aged man,
! too crippled by rheumatism to even
pull himself over the window ledge
by his bunk on the fourth floor, was
saved by Lieutenant Mosely and his
men at the last moment before the
blaze had covered the face of the
| building.
| This man was Andrew Mcdonald,
| about sixty years old The police had
caught a dozen leaping men in their
net, when they noticed the white face
of Mcdonald appearing momentarily
at the high window and then disap-
pearing several times. One of the
rescued men told the bluecoats the
| remaining victim must be Mcdonald,
whom he knew to be badly crippled.
, The police by that time had obtained
adders, and they rusher these end on
end up to McDonald's window. He
was dragged out and carried to the
! stroaf