Evening star., 1940-02-05
Smoke Routs
Score in Fire
AT Apartment
Traffic Is SnurIed
At Busy Corner
During Rush Hour

Fire raging on the fifth floor Of
the Belvedere Apartments, 1901
Massachusetts, avenue NV, routed
more than a score of pajama-clad
residents today and choked corri-
dors of the eight-foor building with
dense smoke.
The blaze was confined to two
room fiat occupied by Mr.. and Mrs.
William w. Wilson, who had left the
building for work before the fire
was discovered at about 8:45 am.
Mrs. Marion Halpine saw smoke
curling from beneath the door of
the Wilson apartment when she was
on her way to the incinerator. She
rushed TO her telephone and notified
the switchboard operator, who
turned in general alrm.
Rush-hour traffic was jammed for
at least an hour as more than Is
pieces of fire apparatus clogged the
busy intersection at Thirteenth
street and Massachusetts avenue.
Firemen fought the blaze by run
ming ladders to the fifth floor from
the Massachusetts avenue side and
carrying hose lines through windows
of an apartment across the hall from
the scene of the fire.
Choked by Smoke.
The Wilson apartment is on an
inside court. The flames destroyed
the kitchen and living room of the
two-room apartment. The bed
room was badly damaged by water
and smoke The living room furni-
ture also was destroyed.
The Wilson's clothes racked in
the bedroom closet escaped the
flames and smoke.
So intense was the heat that walls
in nearby corridors and adjoining
apartments were blistered.
A number of fifth-fioor residents
who rushed to elevators and the
emergency stairway when the alarm
was turned in were choked by the
dense smoke. Occupants who had
not left the building for work herded
in the building lobby, clad in night
clothes. Several women held babies
in their arms.
Firemen Use Gas Masks.
Firemen were forced to use gas
masks in fighting the blaze, which.
they said, undoubtedly would have
spread to other sections of the build
ing had it not been for the thick
concrete fireproof walls.
Several of the flremen were
affected by smoke and had to be
supported to windows for fresh air.
No injuries were reported among
| the fremen or the tenants, who
scrambled, coughing and half
blinded by smoke, into the building
lobby.
Fire Chief L. L. Woolard said
the fire apparently started in the
kitchen shortly after Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson left the apartment. Mrs.
Wilson is employed at the Social
Security Board and her husband
with one of the local drug store
chains.
Chief Says Fire Was Tough.
Chief Woolard declined to esti-
mate the damage. but described the
fire as "one of the toughest we've
| had in some time"
Miss Anne Elizabeth Oliphant,
manager of the apartment house,
who also lives on the fifth floor Of
the building, likewise declined to
estimate the damage. She described
the smoke which filled the corridor
when she hurried from her apart
ment as so dense you couldn't see s
inches in front of you" Most of the
occupants on the fifth floor said
they had to "feel their way" to the
elevators and stairway.
A number OF other tenants called
he telephone operator in the lobby
shortly after Mrs. Halpine had re-
ported the fire. The operator called
police and the Fire Department,
and few minutes later pedes-
trian pulled a nearby fire box.