SPECTACULAR FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 19533, 14 April 1927, Page 5

SPECTACULAR FIRE

NEW YORK SKYSCRAPER CITY ILLUMINATED. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, April 12. One of the most spectacular fires in the , history of the city occurred tonight, when a blaze of unknown origin started on the thirty-eighth floor of the forty-four-story new Netberland Hotel in Fifth avenue. The structure, which was in progress of construction, was surrounded on all sides by a huge wooden scaffolding, which quickly ignited, making a huge torch that illuminated the entire city and stopped the traffic for miles around through falling embers dropping into the neighboring streets. The firemen were powerless to fight the conflagration since there was no water in tho building, and the hoses were torn to bits under the downward gravity pressure and the upward pressure from the force pumps attempting to lift the water from the street level. Great beams, burning fiercely, descended from a distance of 500 ft above the street, and crashed with tho sound of cannon to the ground, endangering the lives of the firemen.