FIRE IN HOTEL ROOF

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16347, 23 May 1927, Page 14

FIRE IN HOTEL ROOF

FIREMEN UNABLE TO REACH SCAFFOLDING FLAMES BURN THEMSELVES OUT NEW YORK. April 13. New York was thrilled by a blazing spectacle of great beauty when the highest fire of history raged in the scaffolding at the pinnacle of the ’luxurious new thirtv-eight-storey Fherry-Netherlaml Apartinent Hotel at Fifth avenue and Firty-ninth street. While huge crowds watched from every vantage point, blazing timbers of the nearly-completed towers showered the streets, or fell a serious menace to root’s of nearby structures. The hotel was under reconstruction and tenant-less. By 9.30 p.m. the fire had enwrapped tho entire upper ten storeys of tho hotel and continued spreading through the wooden scaffolding that- completely surrounded the structure. FIREMEN HELPLESS Firemen were almost helpless against the (ire, for they could get little water to it directly. They played feeble streams from the roofs of adjoining buildings to the lower sections of the great structure, but could get no water whatever to the scaffolding itself. They were compelled to watch the scaffolding, burn itself out in what was one of the most exciting fires this city has ever seen. The firemen worked in imminent danger as burning beams, looking like I lazing .matches .as they broke loose from the side of the building began their descent 559 ft. above the street and crashed to the pavement or the root’s of nearby buildings. Time after time firemen escaped these hurtling missiles by inches, but only one man was injured. Uncounted thousands —probably hundreds of thousands —saw the spectacle, and many of these also narrowly escaped death or injury as they crowded as close to the structure as the police would permit. Central Park, opposite the hotel, was packed with men and women. Traffic in Fifth avenue and Madison avenue and all the nearby streets was blocked and the streets were thick with spectators. LIKE LOFTY ROMAN CANDLE ‘The tower, blazing like a lofty Roman candle, was visible for miles up and down Fifth avenue and from most of Manhattan Island. No estimate of the damage wrought bv the fire could be obtained.

’ The cost to the owners of the Sherry -Netherlnnd building will be considerable, although apparently it was only damaged in the exterior, and it. is of fireproof construction. Burning timbers and embers over an area of some six' or eight square blocks, and every root within this zone was covered by firemen who dodged the blazing projectiles, then put out the incipient fires. The jlnmes had consumed all the inflammatory material by dawn and only a thin column of smoke curling up from the scorched but fireproof tower was left to the tinring torch of a few hours before.