Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-02-11
; |NVAL|DS SAVED
JAS FIRE DR|VES2OO
FROM APARTMENT
4-Story Structure in En-
bassy Area Damaged by
Spectacular Blaze.
SERVANTS ARE HEROES
IN THRILLING RESCUES
10000 Watch Firemen Fight
Flames Raging Through
Four Floors.

Three invalid women, one of them
aged SO, were rescued and more than
200 tenants forced to flee when fire
ast night swept the Decatur Apart
2131 Florida avenue, located in
the midst of fashionable residences
and diplomatic buildings.
A burning cigar butt, tossed on a
pile of trash in the basement, is be-
Iieved to have started the conflagra-
ton, which broke out at 7:20 and was
fought by nearly 200 firemen Tor three
hours before it was checked.
Half dozen fireflghters were over
come by smoke and a number of
others escaped death when a whole
floor collapsed beneath them, burying
them in a pile of debris. The flremen
overcome were treated on the scene
and returned to fighting the fire. A
colored butler rescued a helpless
woman by carrying her in her in
valids chair down three flights OF
stairs through the smoke and flames.
Damage Put at $4,000.
Engineer Commissioner Dan I. Sui
tan and Fire Marshal Calvin c. LAUDER
today we're inspecting the building,
which extends through an entire block
to Decatur place, trying to make an
accurate estimate of the damage,
tentatively reported at about $40 900.
Soon after he had finished his sup
per last night. Daniel Mitchell, a jani-
from the basement through a dumb
waiter shaft to the roof and back
down to the basement from another
shaft, setting the entire four floors
afire.
Smoke and flames beloved quickly
through the apartment as five alarms
were turned in. in quick succession.
Flames more than so feet high
flared into the sky only short dis
lance from the Chilean Embassy and
Irish Legation.
No. 9 Engine Company was the first
to arrive. A woman screamed from
the top-f1oor window as the flames,
Shooting up dumb waiter shaft on the
Decatur place side. ate their way
the third and fourth floor
apartments, filling the halls with
smoke. She was led to safety by
other tenants.
Flames Draw Throngs.
BY the time ladders were put up
and firemen connected several thou
sand feet of hose the entire upper
structure OF the L-shaped building
was a mass of flames which shot more
than so feet into the air. lighting up
the neighborhood for several blocks
and attracting thousands.
Mitchell, who discovered the blaze
and turned in the first alarm, turned
in alarms throughout the building,
sending the tenants rushing for the
stairways to safety. There are no ele-
vators in the four-story building.
Meanwhile, f1remen, commanded by
Fire Chief Charles E. Schrom, fought
their way through the dense clouds
of smoke, smashing out windows and
tearing down doors to get at the
flames.
The roof of one wing of the l.
shaped building collapsed just as the
fremen seemed to get the flames
under control.
While inspecting the building after
the fire was out, Lieut.. j. c. Stein and
a squad from No. engine company,
crashed through a floor weakened
by the flames. They escaped injury.
Just after the first alarm, Earnest
a l9-year-old colored but
Ter. employed in the building, heard
screams of two women on the second
floor Breaking into a room, he dis
covered Mrs. Minnie Berger, IS, an
invalid, sitting in a chair unable to
move. Sweeping the woman and chair
up in his arms, he ran down the
stairs to the street where firemen
met him and carried the woman to
the FarnSborough Apartments next
door.
Miss Elizabeth Bill, 90, was carried
from the building by her nephew,
Murrell J. Dawes, 80, who had just
entered the building when the alarm
sounded. He ran to his aunt's apart
ment and found her and Miss Phoebe
Dawes, 40, his sister, in the room.
Carrying Miss Bill, with his sister
holding to his coat. he rescued them
both.
Maid Rescues Woman, IS.
Mrs. Virginia Fairall, IS, who lay
helpless in bed, was carried out of
the building by Charlotte Everson, a
colored maid, to a tailor shop across
the street where she remained until
taken to Emergency Hospital, where
she was treated for shock.
Canaries, goldfish and several cats
and dogs were rescued by firemen,
fighting to keep tenants from rushing
back into the building to save other
belongings.
Arthur Campbell, so, returning from
a visit to his mother in Emergency
Hospital, found his fourth-foor apart
ment in flames and battled firemen in
trying to enter the house. Fearing
his wife was in the room, he tried
other entrances to the apartment, but
was turned back each time by fire.
men, who told him every one was safe.
He later learned his wife had gone
to the home of a relative several
blocks away.
Mr.. and Mrs. Jerry B. Flood had
Just finished dinner when the flames
burst into the room through the dumb
waiter shaft in their third floor rooms.
Flood, a finance agent for the Ford
Motor Co., grabbed few valuable
papers and small articles, but was
unable to save prize collection Of
his wife's books.
10000 Watch Battle.