Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1922-10-26
OURTEEN DEAD IN
INCEKEIARY FIRE
Flames Sweep FIVg-StOTy TenG-
Ilenf in aeW York.
STARTS IN BABY CARRIAGE
Believed to Be Work of Same Fire
bug Who Caused Recent Similar
Holocaust-Heroic Rescues Numer-
GUS.

/ - JUS.
New York. = Fourteen persons,
most of them children, lost their
lives in a fire, believed by city off
Gals to be the work of a pyromaniac
The flames swept with murderous
lsuddenness from cellar to attic of a
five-story tenement al Lexington ave
nue. and One Hundred and Tenth
street, iii the thickly populated East
Side.
The blaze apparently started in a
baby carriage, under the stairs in the
lower hall, under almost identical cir
cumstances as the recent incend1ary
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. Mrs.
Silver escaped. Mr.. and Mrs. Abra-
ham Matilsky and Sidney and Cath
crime Sugarman, brother and sister of
Mrs. Matlisky, also persisted in the
flames.
While on his way home, City Mar
shall Joseph Lazarus saw smoke issu-
ing from rhe hallway of ne building,
and he ran to the next corner and
turned in an alarm. When he return
ed the whole building, the ground floor
Of which is occupied by stores, was a
mass Of flames, and exit by the stair
ways was cut off. Most of the persons
on the second floor succeeded In max
ing their way down the fire escapes,
but those on the upper floors had to
battle Trough smoke and flames pour
ing out of the windows
Several tenants perched on upper
story windows threatened to jump, but
were prevailed upon by firemen to re-
main until ladders could be raised to
take them down One aged woman,
Mrs. Mary Tnglass, disregarded the
warning and leaped from the fourth
floor, receiving injuries which prob
ably will cause her death.
While the firemen were at work on
the second floor, preparing to fight
their way to the one above, the third
floor collapsed, but not before a warm
ing roar had sent the firemen to
safety.
Nearly a score of persons owe their
lives to 17-year-old James O'Donnell,
a mechanics helper, who was eating
at a restaurant in the vicinity, when
he heard a woman cry for help. Run
ming to the street, he saw the woman
leaning out of the window on the sec
ond floor Of the burning tenement with
two small children by her side.
The young woman clambered on the
sill of store window, jumped and
caught swinging sign and pulled him
self M TO the window. He led the
three frightened tenants down the fire
escape to the street ard then ran back
and rescued the woman's 1S-month-old
baby. who was asleep in a crib. Later
he went to the roof of an adjoining
building and. by throwing board over
the alley space, made it possible for
a number of tenants, who seemingly
fldu DCCn Cul Oil liOlh CStdpC VII iuC
roof, to cross in safety.
William Corners, %, who lives with
his mother across the street from the
burned building, also rescued a num-
Der of persons from the third floor, in
Guiding Mrs. Silver. He was badly
burned when gust Of fame burned
the clothing from his back as he was
walking down the fire escape with
woman in his arms.
In the confusion shat followed the
cry of fire there were many thrilling
rescues. Families were separated as
they ran from their rooms, and chill
dren were forgotten in the general
panic Norman Goldfars, who lived
on the first floor with his wife and
two children, succeeded in getting
them out of the burning building. He
then returned and brought out several
women and children who had been
overcome by smoke.
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