Evening star., 1936-01-02
THREE LOSE LIVES
ASFLAMES SWEEP
NJ STREET HOUSE
Mother and Son and Man
Trapped on Third Floor
of Rooming Place.
POLICE AND FlREMEN
MAKE HEROIC RESCUES
Two Men Seriously Injured as
They Flee Blaze in New York
Avenue Dwelling.
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Trapped on the top floor of a three
story rooming house, man, a woman
and a 13-year-old boy were burned to
death early today in a spectacular
three alarm FIRE at 10l7 NJ street.
More than half a dozen other persons
were injured or overcome by smoke,
but further casualties we're averted by
heroic rescues by police and firemen.
| The dead are:
Raymond Glines. %. steamfitter
employed at the Government powder
plant, Indian Head, Md.
! Mrs. Florence Bevans. 80
Charles Bevans, son of the dead
woman.
Bodies Found Near Window.
The bodies OF the three victims were
found huddled at a window they ap.
parently had been unable to open
after being weakened by the smoke
as they slept.
| Flames swept narrow wooden
/ stairway, the only entrance to the
rooming house, and kept rescuers
/ from entering the burning dwelling.
Men and women chung to window
sills and ledges on the second snd
third floors as firemen raised exten-
sion ladders and carried those stranded
TO safety. Dressed only in night
clothes. persons routed by the flames
were given shelter at neighoor!ng
/ houses.
Two second precinct policemen
Jacob Rinker and John w. Hanra-
han-who were among the first on
the scene, saved two women as they
| jumped from Second-story windows.
Two Injured in Another Fire.
Two men were seriously injured in
another rooming house fire yesterday
at 63 New York avenue northeast.
One received a broken back when he
/ fell while trying to cross a narrow
ledge to an adjoining building. and
the other was severely burned when
he ran down a blazing stairway.
Rinker and Hanrahan were patroll-
| ing their beat together near the scene
of the M street fire when they heard
screams coming from the rooming
/ house.
! Dense clouds of smoke poured from
windows of the house as the officers
neared the scene. Flames enveloped
! the Courembis Bros restaurant on
the street level beneath the rooming
house.
! Try to Calm Occupants.
After instructing a taxi driver, FL
mer Ridgeway, 1922 Third street, to
turn in a fire alarm, Rinker and Han
rahan tried to calm the trapped occu-
pants of the house and prevent them
from leaping to the ground until the
! fire apparatus arrived.
One woman, whose identity was not
learned, was caught by Rinker as she
threw herself from second-Story
window Hanrahan, perched perilously
on a box near an areaway. caught
Mrs Irene Achouries, 35, when she
also jumped from q second-foor
window.
The entire rooming house was In
flames when the first group OF fire
engines arrived. Second and third
alarms were sounded in quick sue
ceSSion when the flames seemed about
to spread to adjoining residences.
Rinker was overcome by smoke and
required treatment at Emergency Hos
pital. Hanrahan, although affected
by the smoke and cut on the cheek
by broken glass. remained on the
scene and assisted firemen in helping
persons from the house.
Mother Appears on Scene.
| Everybody was believed to have
been taken from the rooming house
when Mrs. Mamie Mercer. 1911
Eleventh street, mother of Glines. ap-
peared on the scene and urged fire.
men to save her son.
Assured by residents of the house
that all the roomers were accounted
for, f1remen took Mrs. Mercer home
in a hysterical condition and con-
tinued to search the ruins.
Mrs Mercer told police her son and
Mrs. Bevans had been living at her
house until a week ago. 1fe be-
reaved mother said she had asked
(See FIRE, Page AID