Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2025 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== New York Tribune Tuesday, 15, June 1897 FIRE ON ELLIS ISLAND MANY BUILDINGS BURNED ONLY THE POWER-HOUSE SAVED FROM DESTRUCTION The Immigrants At The Station Safely Landed In This City, And No One Reported Seriously Hurt - The Flames Started In The Main Building, Which Is Soon A Wreck. Every building on Ellis Island except the power-house was totally destroyed by fire early this morning, but all of the 270 immigrants the structures contained, so far as is known at present, were saved. The immigrants, most of whom had landed here yesterday, were almost all in the new wing of the main building, only a small number of persons being in the hospital. In ten minutes after the alarm was given they had all been quietly awakened and marched safely on board the John G. Carlisle, the newest Ellis Island boat. So far as known no one was seriously injured in fighting the fire or from any other cause. Three men were hurled from the top of the cupola, where the flames were first seen, their heads turned by the draughts of smoke and heat. They landed on the ground floor and were badly cut about the head, but these were the most serious casualties reported. The first intelligence of the fire was received in this city at 12:38 a.m. The harbor police from their station at Pier A, North River, saw a flame bursting from the windows of the main building on the island. Word was at one telephoned to Police Headquarters, and the fireboat New-Yorker was dispatched to the island. At the same time the sergeant in command at Pier A called the reserves out of bed in the station, and with every other man he could spare dispatched them in two of the police naptha launches to the island. The police-boat Patrol is laid up for repairs, and the slower launches had therefore to be used. The men were under command of Roundsman McCorkmick. Captain Schultze, who was at his home, was also tele- graphed for, and a call was sent out from Pier A for the reserves from the other precincts in the lower part of the city. Twenty-five men were obtained from the Old Slip and Church-st stations and hurried to Pier A to be ready for any emergency. A TINY FLAME When first seen by the lookout at the police station the fire was only a flame, about as large as a man's hand, coming out of a window on the second floor at the east end of the main building. The flames spread rapdily, however, and at 1:05 a.m. - that is, by the time the boats were fairly on their way to the island - the eaves of the roof began to fall, setting fire to the wooden piers and docks on either side. At 1:12 a.m. the whole building was a mass of flame, illuminating the entire harbor. The tops of the sky- scrapers in the city were outlined in bold relief by the red light, the gilt cornice of the Manhattan Life Building reflecting the light until that building it- self seemed in flames, too. SPECTATORS AT THE BATTERY The southern end of the city is extremely quiet at this hour of the morning, but within thirty minutes of the starting of the fire, several hundred spectators were hurrying toward the Battery. The owners of rowboats and other small craft were present in considerable num- bers, and they endeavored to make money by letting their boats to anxious people. FEARS OF GREAT LOSS OF LIFE The fire presented a magnificent spectacle from the Battery, and rumors of a terrible loss of life flew thick and fast. Although it was known that it had not been an unusually busy day at the island, and that the comparatively few immigrants landed were passed swiftly through the pens, even the police were certain that a serious loss of life must have resulted. At first the flames could not be seen to diminish perceptibly before the tons of water thrown on the fire by the fireboats. At 2 a.m. the fire was plainly at its height, but after that gradually the red light over the Bay faded away. SAFELY LANDED IN THIS CITY At 2:10 all apprehension for the safety of the people on the island was allayed by the arrival at the Battery of the ferryboat John G. Carlisle, which plies between the Battery and the island, with all the immigrants and the sick from the hospital on board. One of the women was suffering from typhoid fever. She was said to be in a serious condition. With the party were the doctors and nurses. Before the ferryboat arrived, ambulances had been summoned from Gouverneur and Hudson Street hospitals, so that the sick brought to the city could be cared for. The doctor in charge of the party said that, so far as he knew, no one had been burned or injured. All about there were ferryboats, tugs and small boats, willing to bring the people to the city, but some of the people in their excitement, feared at first to venture on the water. Just before the Carlisle arrived, a man who said he was D. K. MOSCOPAULAS, an official interpreter on the island, rushed onto Pier A, greatly excited. He had come to report for duty, he said. The crowd cheered him. HOW THE FIRE STARTED Reporters who reached the island soon after the fire started learned that WILLIAM GAINES, a night watchman, was the first to discover the fire. It is GAINES duty to visit each part of the building every twenty minutes. He was making his rounds at 12:20 o'clock and had just reached the new wing of the building, where the immigrants were asleep, when he was attracted to the northeast end by the reflection of a flame on the windows. Without raising an outcry, he ran quickly to the cupola, and was nearly knocked off his feet by big clouds of smoke coming from the office of CHARLES ICHLAR, the chief clerk, which is on the second floor. The fire, he thought, was caused by a defective slectric-light wire. Electricity was used in the entire building. The office was lighted up by tongues of flame. A moment later SILAS TRUMAN and GEORGE HOOLIHAN, of the janitor's office, were by GAINE'S side, fighting the fire. While they were trying to get the flames under control, a draught of smoke and hot air lifted them off their feet and knocked them down the stairs to the ground floor. All of them were badly shaken up and more or less cut about the head and face. In spite of the severe fall they had sustained, however, they quickly arose and quietly aroused every-body in the buildings, dis- playing unusual presence of mind. Had they lost their heads and shouted, a panic would have followed and many lives would have been lost. The men's coolness had a wonderful effect. Everybody saw at once that the buildings were doomed to fall in a short while, but they marched in an orderly manner out of the place and onto the John G. Carlisle. By the time the immigrants were boarding the boat a score of streams from the island fire apparatus were playing on the burning buildings. DR. SENNER said the loss on the buildings would be about $780,000. Valuable records were lost. At 2:40 a.m. the only building on the whole island that would probably be saved was the engine-house to the extreme west, as the wind was blowing from that point, and the house in question is a fairly sub- stantial building. It was impossible to save any of the other buildings, as the fire was entirely beyond control of the fireboats. Between three and four acres were covered with flames. As the second of the two fireboats left New York one of the watchmen of the island fell into the water. He was attempting to jump on board after the board had started, and just failed to clear the distance. Ropes were thrown into the water, and after an exciting five minutes the man was rescued. He was almost uncon- scious, and was immediately taken to the engine-room. There was a great deal of crowding among the various craft inside the breakwater of the island, and much delay was caused thereby to the fireboats and tugs sent to assist. DR. SENNER, Commissioner of Immigration, with MRS. SENNER, left his home, at No. 248 West One-hundred- and-twenty-third-st., at 1:40 a.m. on his was to Ellis Island. He said he felt no anxiety, as he was positive that precautions for a fire were so perfect that there could not possibly be loss of life. ===========================================================================