Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-10-23
7 W0 INQUIRIES
LAUNCHED into
ORIGIN OF FIRE
In Which IS Fives Lost,
II Injured, $50 Made
Homeless
YOUTH OF II IS HERO
Climbed to Second Story
Carried Woman and
Children Down --.
fRx Associated Bress l

New York, Oct. 23.-Fifteen per-
sons, most of them children, lost
their lives early today in a fire, be-
lieved by city officials to be the work
Of a pyromaniac. The flames swept
with murderous suddenness from
cellar to attic of a five-story brick
tenement at Lexington avenue and
10th street in the thickly populated
east side.
The blaze apparently started in a
baby carriage under the stairs in the
lower hall under almost identical
circumstances as the recent incen-
diary fire in an upper west side
apartment house which resulted in
seven deaths. So quickly did the
flames shoot through the building
that a number of the dead were
found in bed, burned or suffocated
without the slightest opportunity to
escape.
Nathan Silver and four of his chill
dren were among the victims. Mr..
and Mrs. Abraham Matilsky and Sir
ney and Catherine Sugarman, broth
err and sister of Mrs. Matilsky, also
perished.
Shortly after 1 o'clock this morn
ting City Marshal Joseph Lazarus,
| ,,Lilo ~, bic ,,o1y howe COW, e,,,olro
issuing from the hallway of the
building. He ran to the next corner
and turned in an alarm. When he
returned the whole building, the
ground floor of which is occupied by
stores, was a mass of flames and
exit by the stairways was cut off.
Most of the persons on the second
floor succeeded in making their way
down the fire escapes, but those on
the upper floors had to battle,
through smoke and flames pouring
out of the windows.
Several tenants perched on upper
story windows threatened to jump,
but were prevailed upon by firemen
to remain until ladders could be rails
ed. One aged woman, Mrs. Mary
Inglass, disregarded the warning and
leaped from the fourth floor, receiv-
| ing injuries which caused her death
tonight.
While the firemen were at work on
the second floor and preparing to
| fight their way to the one above, the
third floor collapsed, but not before
a warning roar had sent the firemen
to safety.
Nearly a score of persons owe
| their lives to 17-year-old James
O'Donnel, mechanics helper, who
was eating at a restaurant in the
vicinity, when he heard woman cry
| for help. Running to the street he
saw the woman leaning out of the
window on the second floor of the
burning tenement with two small
children by her side. The young man
dow, jumped and caugh ia swinging
sign and pulled himself up to the
window. He led the three frighten-
ed tenants down the fire escape to
the street and then raced back and
rescued the woman's 1S-months-old
baby, who was asleep in a crib. Later
he went to the roof of an adjoining
building and by throwing a board
over the alley space made it possible
for a number of tenants, who SEEM
ingly had been cut off from escape
on the roof, to cross in safety.
William Corners, %, who lives
with his mother across the street
lfrom the burned building, also res
cued number of persons from the
third floor, including Mrs. Silver. He
was badly burned when gust of
flame burned the clothing from his
back as he was walking down the fireS,
escape with woman in his arps
Assistant District Attornsss
mis-, one of the first officN
the scene while the bIss
progress, noted thsSs dl
ity between toda.
the west SS