Fire in a Sweater's Ben.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 308, 17 October 1888, Page 6

Fire in a Sweater's Ben.

Telegraphing- on August sth, the NewYork correspondent of the 'Dady News' reports : — ' A serious and fatal firo occurred here late on Fiiday afternoon, and the honor ib has excited is increased by the fact that the building destroyed exactly resembles 1,500 others in this city. The pcene of the catastrophe is a six-storey building. Eight feet in front of the burned promises stands the White Houses saloon ; sft. behind them rises another sfruetmo like the one burned. Access to the stieet can only be gained by a blind alley perhaps 2ft. m ide. The law now prevents the eroetion of such mantraps, but theie are 1,500 ot tho kind, the danger of which is unly modified by the compulsory evecti n of fire-escapes, with which the burned Milding was supplied to an extent beyond the lego I requirements. Nobody knows how tho fir> commenced; but- within fifty eeeonds from the first alarm the tirenien were on the spot. Repeated alarms brought fifteen companies of firemen within five minutes. By that time no sound ot a human being came from the crackling dobrii, where nearly 200 people were known to have been shortly before. They weio tailors, mostly Poles, Jews, and foreigner- , working on tho sweating . ybtcm. The flamoi started on the sweating floor, and swept up the hoist, which is destioyed, a-> well as the adjoining stanway. Seeing their way of escape cut oil the peoj le in the bouse became panic - -.'nck'-n, and the s-cenos which eir-.u^d sickewcd «vn tho hardened fireman, v/ho, unable to use their apparatus, could only .-hour directions ro the delirious men, women, ,\[\d children who clustered at c\ery window, and overcrowded the fire-escape-*. Thu firemen called in vain ; pjobably many of the foreigners did not undei&iand what was said to them, as their cries were not understood by the people in the yard. Somo who reached the ground in safety madly iotnrned to the burning piemises to !-a\e their goods. These met the outccmiing throng, and a dreadful struggle followed in the passage wav, which became instantly and fatally blo<"l'ed. As tho flame drove tnc wretched creatures np to the higher floor->, some of them jumped from tlu v top storey, when, b2 1 fui their thoughtlessness in their fright, they nu_'ht have reached the ground safe'y fiom tho loAver floors. A tew made thon ppiilt us way o\or tli3 laddeishonzontallv sttoLchcd from the theitre window. The extent of the oal.imity it, net vet hilly kno.vn. but twenty coi p?cs have been found, and .ib many people he injured in the hospitals V'any moie air> supposed to be mining. '