The New York herald., 1922-08-04
EAST side VESUVIO
FIRE FELLS FIFTEEN
All Mulberry Street Throws
Out It's Furniture at
First Eruption.
RESTAURANT RUINED
Fumes Overcome Firemen-
City.Nurse Rescues Bed
ridden Woman.
LA GRECO BAND FLEES
Brotherhood Leaves It's Dinner
and Yells Neighborhood
Into a Panic.
LA GRECO BAND FLEEs

Donate Inelli's vesuvio Restaurant,
231 Mulberry street, made good it's
fiery name yesterday afternoon. The
Vesuvio was crowded to its several
ternal Brotherhood. who had just con-
cluded an important meeting and were
being dined by their newly elected Of
ficers.
Smoke began seeping through the
floor and Issuing in puffs and squalls
through the cellarway. For a while
the diners let 1t pass as some inconse-
quential happening In the kitchen be-
low-such as hot fat on the stove or
the accidental burning Of the apron of
way crater came Donate himself. The
moment he had coughed the smoke
out of his lungs Donate let loose yell
that threw the neighborhood into q
panic He yelled "Fire!" and bolted
into the street.
La Greco Fraternal brotherhood made
chorus of it and in no time the air of
Mulberry street was filed with alarums.
smoke and furniture. Patrolman Quinn.
sizing up the situation and understand
ing that unless something radical were
done at once human beings would join
that cascade of furniture, rang for the
fire engines and the police reserves.
It's wonder somebody wasn't killed
by the furniture barrage. The moment
Donate Inelli and La Greco Benevolent
Brotherhood let the East Side know
that there was fire in the basement OF
vesuvio, the tenants in that building and
those who dwell in the tenements on
either side began hurting beds. chairs,
lounges, tables and even the crayon en-
largements Of the family out OF win
dows Where there were no windows
handy the downpour took place In the
stair well.
Fifteen Firemen Drop.
Twenty-four families lived over the
vesuyio. Thirty-two made the ad1oin-
ing tenement their abode. Eight fami-
lies lived in the rear Of the burning
building, and there Is no record OF how
many more families live in the houses
across the street. At any rate, every
thing from washbowls to bedspreads
poured from the windows. The cellar
beneath the Vesuvio was well stocked
with kindling wood and other STUFF that
flames feed upon. BY the time the first
OF the fire apparatus arrived and the
patrolrnen had calmed the neighborhood
down a trifle the well known volcano |
was being emulated.
The dauntless Smoky Joe Martin him
self was there in command ana his men
put on the gas masks. so strangllng was
the smoke. Presently several feed pipes
for Illuminating gas broke and the fumes
became more deadly. One by one III
teen firemen dropped where they stood
and Smoky Joe sent for ambulances and
the rescue squad. The first to need at
tention was Lieut. Turbidy of Truck
No. 9. Ambulance surgeons revived him.
But he, as the fourteen others. had to
knock off fighting fires for the day.
None had to be taken to the hospitals.
In all the excitement-and It hasn't
been higher In Mulberry street for
year or more-they forgot all about
Mrs. Anna Calabrise, who is bedridden
with rheumatism and is 10 years old at
least. Everybody knows her-Mamma
Calabrise. Mamma Calabrise lived on the
third floor of 231. It's NOT so pleasant
tc think OF what might have happened
TO the old lady had not Miss Susan
Mason, the Health Departments visiting
nurse in that section OF Mulberry street.
been making her rounds about that time.
The Nurses Herofsm.
Miss Mason was in the habit of seeing
Mama Calabrise almost every day,
and one OF hcr first thoughts when she
was told that Donate Inelli's vesuvio
restaurant was on fire was of Mama
Calabrise. without taking any extra
precautions at all Miss Mason ran
through the smoke ana hoped over
piled hose and up the sitting stairs. A
fireman tried to stop her, but some one
said that she was a nurse, and of course
the fireman let her go.
Poor Mama Calabrise was fumbling
with her beads preparing to die. She
didn't seem excited. She had made
poor effort to get to the window, but
there she was on her knees beside her
old rickety bed when Miss Mason ar
rived In her room. There Is not much
to Mama Calabrise, that Is, physically,
and Miss Mason hustled her like a child
out into the hall 1t was treacherous
and dangerous going. for the smoke
was heavy and the water was making
the footing mean.
But the cool Niles Mason half carried
Mama Calabrise UP a whole flight to
where the smoke was less heavy She
carried on to a window and. with Mama
/ Calabrise at her side, she called to the
firemen below. or course they were
rescued with neatness and dispatch in
no time at all. Miss Mason tucked
/ Mama Calabrise In neigAnbor's bed
and went Off about her daily business OF
making summer life in Little italy Just
n bit easier for everybody on her beat
1t was n tough nre. Nobody could
estimate the damage or learn what