The New York herald., 1921-10-26
Man And WOMAN DIE
IN TRYING TO ESCAPE
FIRE IN APARTMENT
Way to Roof Ladder Blocked
by Lumber Pile in West
58th Street.
WOMAN UNIDENTIFIED
Victims, Cut Off by Smoke
in the Hallway, Are
SuffOcated.
DAMAGE rs NOT HEAVY
Firemen Quickly Put Out the
Blaze and Police Are Called
to Handle Crowds.
DAMAGE rs NOT HEAVY

Thorley Duwell, an importer, 33
years old, and an unidentified woman
about % were burned to death just
before last midnight in a fire that
started underneath a Eear stairway
on the ground floor of the five story
brownstone store and apartment house
in 131 West F'ifty-eighth street,
burned upward along the staircase
and mushroomed in an apartment on
the fifth floor, occupied by Duwell
and a man named KinzM. Be
sides causing the deaths of the two
persons, the fire looked SO threatening
for time and burned so rapidly that
most Of the tenants in two eight story
apartment houses adjoining left their
homes and ran into the street. The
reserves of the West Forty-seventh
street station were called to handle
the large crowd that gathered.
The firemen found the bodies of the
man and the woman on the floor of a
room in Duwelrs apartment. 1t was
thought for q time that the body of the
woman might have been that of Mrs
buchanan, who occupied an apartment
on the fourth floor, and that she had
to tho roof after she found the stair
ways on fire.
Believed Lost, She Returns.
Mrs. Buchanan. however. returned TO
tie house this morning about 1 o'clocl.
and said she had been TO theatre.
William Bobbs, who lives on the third
floor, was also missing for time but
came home later and said he was not in
the building wncn the fire stsgtad.
Kinzh, who lived with Duwell. is out of
the city.
The bodies of Dwell and the woman
were partly dressed and were lying
about halfway between a bed and
tie dnor OF a closet. In this closet Is
a ladder which leads to an opening in
the skylight, and the detectives and
firemen believe that the man and the
woman were trying to reach the ladder
when the flames and smoke overcame
them. The fremen said, however, that
escape through the slSyligbt was cut off
by a large pile of lumber banked against
the ladder inside the closet.
The first floor of the building, which
was once a single family house. was oo-
cupied by Wahl & Co., interior deco
rators. The second floor is the estab-
lshment Of VI. Leimkran. furrier. and
the third, fourth and fifth floors are
three room apartments, occupied by
William Bobbs. Mrs. Buchanan and Du-
well and Kinzli
woman Discovers Fire.
1t was Mrs. Anna Wahl, a member Of
the decorating company, who discovered
the fire and gave the alarm. She went
into her store about IL 80 o'clock to
arrange a portion of her stock, and
going to the rear of the store smelled
smoke and heard cracking noises. She
opened a door into the hallway and
found the rear stairway on fire.
She ran to the front OF the house,
crying Fire." and then pressed all
of the buttons on the mail boxes in
the vestibule. She said that. although
she waited in the hallway until the fire
men began to arrive, she saw no one
descend the stairs. Her screams were
heard by q chauffeur in the street who
ran to the corner and pulled fire
alarm box.
Engine Company No q reached the
scene quickly. but the firemen found
the whole stairway in flames. When
the hook and ladder men came. how
ever. they hoisted a thirty-fve foot ex-
tension ladder and got in through the
windows. The fire burned rapidly. but
it was soon extinguished with a loss
of perhaps $1,000
The woman was about . feet inches
tail and weighed about 130 pounds. She
had dark hair and plump features.