A DASTARDLY CRIME.

Evening Star, Issue 14036, 17 April 1909, Page 11

A DASTARDLY CRIME.

CROWDED TENEMENT HOUSE SET ON FIRE. THE “BLACK HAND” IN NEW YORK. The worst tenement fire that has occurred for years in New York destroyed a five-storey flat house in the foreign quarter on the east side of the town last night (writes the New York correspondent of the London ‘ Chronicle ’ on March 2), and tea people lost their lives, while a number were seriously injured, either from jumping from the windows or from burns. The fire was certainly of an incendiary origin, and is believed to be the work of the Black Hand.” The building was occupied chiefly by Italian families, though a few French and Spanish people also lived in the house. The

—F atalities—were confined to eight Italian and two French people, though more than 100 persons lived in the tenement. The fire started on the ground floor, directly under the main staircase, and instantly made immense headway. The reason for this was afterwards discovered to be the lact that the incendiaries, whoever they were, had placed a heap of combustible materials under the stairs, and had poured oil upon them. It also must have been some time after the fire started before the alarm was given, for when the tenants on the second floor, who were first awakened, gave the alarm the staircase was almost completely burned away, and the exit thus cut off. This created

—Panic—among the inmates, who rushed from their rooms and sought to escape from the roof. To add to the horror of the situation the crowd rushing up the stairs found that the ladder leading to the skylight had been removed, and "’hen other means of mounting to it were procured the panic-stricken inmates learned that the skylight had been nailed down. When the fire brigade arrived ladders were run up to the windows, and dozens of people were carried down in the arms of firemen. The fatalities occurred chiefly on the second floor, and were largely the result of panic, though some were killed by the floor falling through and precipitating the victims into the burning mass below.

—The Scene Was Most Thrilling, as many jumped from windows, not waiting for the firemen’s aid. Parents tossed babies and children from the windows without waiting to see if blankets were stretched to catch them. The firemen did all that was possible, and the face that the fatalities were so few was entirely due to their efforts. One of the tenants recently received a letter threatening the fire unless money was forthcoming.