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Show II. Y. CHINESE TERRORIZED AS 8 DIE 111 FIRE Two Tenements Burn in Early Morning Blaze; Hundreds Flee NEW YORK, June 1 (AP) The worst Chinatown fire in 30 years raged through two teeming teem-ing Doyer street tenements early today, taking at least eight lives and menacing the whole area of crowded, outworn out-worn buildings. Excited, chattering Chines and whit resident of the district, routed from their beds by the clatter clat-ter of engines responding to four alarm and the screams and shouts of desperate men and women fleeing flee-ing for their lives, jammed the crooked, narrow streets for hours. The firemen, who were joined by Mayor LeGuerdia during the height of the fire, worked under extreme difficulties in the twisting streets. Four o the firemen were injured. For half an hour after they had sighted a man clinging to a fire escape which threatened at any moment mo-ment to fall, the firemen worked under a protective barrage of water wa-ter to rescue the man. Eventually he was brought down, only to die later in a hospital. Flame Spread Rapidly Tna.fienaao- of ehe elaza and the rapidity with which It roared through the ancient wooden balls and dark cubicles of the tenements moved Mayor La Guard ia to declare that "Chinatown must go." It also led to the announcement by the district attorney's office that an investigation would be started immediately to determine responsibility responsi-bility for the fire and the loss of life. Chinatown, only a few blocks from city hall and ths civic center, lies just north of Brooklyn bridgs at a point where the shabby Bowery, Bow-ery, with its steaming, crowded lodging house and cheap dives, stems off from Chatham square. There are three streets Doyer, Mott and Pell lined with tiny shops and restaurants with flaring flar-ing signs and banners. Noisy at night under the glare of many lamps. Chinatown had lapsed into darkness and sleep when the first crackle of flames and the drift of smoke in the tenement where the fire started roused one of its many occupants at 1:M a. m Scream Warning He acreamed a warning that sent others tumbling from their beds. 1 Half-dressed Chinese men. women and children scrambled through the front doors of the two buildings, climbed from windows and ran crying cry-ing down fire escapes. Second, third and fourth alarms were sounded as soon as the first firemen arrived on the scene. The engines clogged the narrow street and hundreds of Chinese and white were herded as quickly as possible behind fire lines as the fear grew that walls might collapse. It was not until two hour after the first alarm sounded that firemen fire-men had the flames under control and were confident the rest of Chinatown was safe. |