CITY & VICINITY

CITY & VICINITY

ACCIDENT AT A FIRE IN A BUILDING WITH NO FIRE ESCAPES.

There was a fire in a four-story flat house at No. 2195 Second avenue early Sunday morning, at which several persons were injured on account of the absence of fire escapes, in direct violation of the law. Two other houses at the side of this building, built at the same time, four years ago, have never had fire escapes. Several complaints are said to have been made at the bureau of buildings, but the fire in the drenching rain early Sunday morning found the building in question without means for the occupants to escape, and the result was the injury of several persons in the effort to escape from the rapidly-spreading flames. The front rooms on the third floor were occupied by James Morris, his wife and their infant son. Mrs. Morris jumped to the awning and escaped with a sprained ankle. Her husband threw the baby down and it was ‘caught safely. Then Mr. Morris dropped to the awning and carried the child to the sidewalk. John McMahon tied a sheet about the waist of his wife, attached a clothes-line to the sheet and tried to lower her to the awning. The knot of the sheet slipped and Mrs. McMahon fell, still clasping the baby. When she struck the awning the canvas was torn loose from the supports and she fell through, while the infant rolled unhurt upon the awning. The woman fell directly over a trap door to the cellar. It broke under her and she went down upon the stone steps. She was insensible when some men present raised her from the steps and carried her into an adjoining house. It was discovered later that her skull was fractured and that her left arm was broken near the shoulder. McMahon climbed down the front of the house, dropping from one window to another until he reached the awning. Various other occupants jumped from windows and were more or less injured. Jacob Bentz, a butcher, living on the third floor, prepared to lower his wife and infant daughter. He wrapped the baby in blankets and dropped it into the arms of a neighbor, who caught it. The child’s head struck against his shoulder so violently that the soft bones of the skull were compressed out of shape. Had there been the required fire escapes on the building doubtless many accidents would have been averted.