Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-10-23
BRICK TENEMENT
BURNS IN n. Y;
A LIVES LOST
Most of the Victims Were
Children; PyromaniaC Be-
lieved by Officials to Be
Responsible

New York, Oct. 22.-Fourteen
persons. 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 sud-
denness from cellar to attic OF
five story 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 a lower hall under almost inden-
teal circumstances as the recent
incendiary fire in an upper west
s.de apartment house Whlch re
suited 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
children were among the Victims
Mrs. Silver escaped. Mr.. and Mrs.
Abraham Matilsky and Sidney ana
| Catherine Sugarman, brother ana
sister of Mrs. Matilsky also per-
| ished.
Building a Mass of Flames.
shortly after O'Clock this morn
ing, City Marshal Joseph Lazarus,
while on his way home, saw smoke
! issuing from the hallway OF the
| building. He ran to the next corn
er and turned in an alarm Wheh
! he returned the whole building
/ the ground floor OF which is occu-
pied by stores, was mass oil
( flames, and exit by the stairways
was cut off. Most of the persons
on the second floor made their way
down fire escapes but those ON up
per floors had to struggle through
smoke and flames pouring out the
| windows.
Several tenants perched on up
! per story windows threatened 10
! iump but were prevailed upon py
| firemeu to remain until ladders
could be raised to take them down
| one aged woman, Mrs. Mary In
glass disregarded the warning ana
| ieaped from the fourth floor, re-
ceiving injuries which propapiy
will cause her death.
While the firemen were at WORK
on the second floor and preparing
to fight their way to the thlfd
! floor, the floor collapsed but not
before a warning roar had sent the
1 firemen to safety.
Boys Heroic Work.
Nearly a score of persons owe
their lives TO 17-year-old James
IODonnell, mechanics helper,
( who was eating at a restaurant ~
the vicinity when he heard a wom-
an cry for help. Running TO the
street, he saw the woman leaning
/ ant of the window on the second
floor of the burning tenement with
two small children by her side.
The young man clambered on the
sill of a store window, jumped ana
caught a swinging sign and pulled
himself up to the window. lie lea
the three frightened tenants down
The fire escape to the street ana
then ran back and rescued the
woman's 1S-monthsold baby, who
was asleep in Il crib. Later he
went TO the roof Of an adjoining
building and by throwing board
over the alley space, made it pos
sible for q number OF tenants, VINO
seemingly had been cut off from
escape, to cross in safety.
Man Badly Burned.
William Conners, 22, who lives
with his mother across the street
from the burned building, also tes-
cued number of persons from
the third floor, including Mrs. Sill
yer. He was badly burned when
n gust of flames burned the cloth
ing from his back as he was walk
I ing down the fire escape with a
woman in his arms.
! TaXicab drivers, lounglng IN
their machines at the curbings III
the early morning hours, turned
sixty-mile an hour Samaritans
during the fire. Scores of them
put their cabs at the disposal OF
the police i'll dispatching the in
iured to hospitals. Later they
were commandeered to bring rel
atiyes to the morgue, where the
bodies of the oca0 were lying.
In the morgue, Edward Pine
hurried to the body of his fiancee
Sarah Silver, and identified it when
others failed to do so. y party had
been planned in the flat today, at
which the engagement was to
have been announced.
Returned for Her Ring.
Miss Silver, Survivors say, had
once passed the danger point in
the hallway, on her way to safety
when she returned to her room fol-
her engagement ring. In Il mo-
ment the flames blocked the cor
rldor. She jumped from a window
and died of a fractured skull.
Police estimated that 800 per-
sons lived in the five-floor build
ing. Many of them lost all they
had in the fire. A relief commit
tee is tonight making provision
for the care of the homeless anc
providing them with temporary
funds from public collections.
|