TERRIBLE SCENE AT A FIRE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9089, 22 May 1891, Page 3

TERRIBLE SCENE AT A FIRE.

New York, March 18 —A great fire broke out this morning in a large building, five storeys high, at the corner of Allan-street and Hestor-Btree& The occupants were members of Jewish families, all engaged in the tailoring trade. The first flames were noticed shortly after three a.m., when all the inmates weie in bed. In a few minutes after the first warning was given the flames had spread from the cellar to the roof, destroying all chance of exit from the only available staircases. The fire brigade was speedily on the spot, and the fire-escapes were brought into requisition, but much confusion arose in consequence of the density of the smoke. The third floor was occupied by the family of a tailor, named Moss Goldstein, but when the fire-escape was placed within reach the rungs of the ladder were white with heat, and Goldstein, who had three children in hi 9 arms, recoiled from trusting them to the fiery ladder. The police shoutad to him, "Throw them," and he, taking them by the heels, dropped them one by one to the ground. According to all reports, when the firemon arrived the house was ablaze from top to bottom. Men and women were already clinging to the fire-escapes, which were on the spot before ' the fire engines arrived. Moss Goldstein's eldest child, aged eleven, says she was tossed like an indiarubber ball from hand to hand until she reached and was caught by the third man on the ground, who rescued her uninjured. There was an Italian family on the fourth floor in great peril. The firemen gained the windows by means- of their ladders., A little child, was about to be lifted in the .arms of one_o£ the men when she drew back ard returned, into the dense smoke which was now pouring into the room. The firemen^ saw her retiring and shouted to her to come back, but as she she did not return they groped after her, and found her gasping for breath and nearly smothered, She could not be persuaded at first to hurry away. She was dragging a doll's trunk, and said, " I can't leave it. 'My mother gave it to me." The firemen in spite of the supreme danger, flung the bos first through the window and then took the girl down. The box on falling on the pavement burst open and revealed, not doll finery, but the deed for her dead mother's grave. The child is thirteen years of age. It appears that Jastor, a man who was killed, had tried" to reach the roof, but the scuttle roof was closed and locked. Harry, the eldest son, carried his mother down to a room on the next floor, with his little brother clinging to his mother's skirts. Tbe flames scorched the hair of their heads, and the arm by which Harry held his mother was terribly burned. The mother was scorched from head to foot, and no hope is entertained of her recovery. It is believed that the fire is the work of an incendiary, and this report has aroused intense excitement in the district. The building contained seventeen adults and thirty-four children.