Cassidy & Sons Building Fire
New
York, New York
December 29, 1894
New York, Dec. 29.-- Three alarms were
sent out at 5 o'clock this morning for a fire in
the six-story building at 214 and 216 West
Twenty-fourth street, occupied by
Cassidy &
Sons, dealers in gas fixtures. The loss will
reach $50,000. While at work on the fourth
floor, Battalion Chief Bresnan and
Assistant
Foreman John J. Rooney were killed instantly by
the fifth floor falling in upon them.
Their bodies have not yet
 been
recovered. Assistant Foreman Hennessey, of
Engine 18, had his left shoulder and left leg
fractured by a falling beam.
They were on the fifth and sixth floors and
Chief Bresnan surrounded by men from Engine
companies Nos. 14, 18, and 19, was forcing his
way up the stairway leading to the fourth floor.
Without a moment's warning the charred beams on
the fifth floor gave way, under the weight of a
heavy piece of machinery which carried away the
stairway. Chief Bresnan
and Assistant
Foreman John L. Rooney, of Engine company No.
12, were both pinned under the machinery as it
struck the fourth floor. Both were
probably instantly killed. Half a dozen
firemen were also pinned down on the stairway
leading from the fourth to the fifth floor, but
they managed to cut their way out in the face of
the advancing flames. Four of the men were
painfully, but none seriously, burned. It
is impossible to make an effort to rescue the
bodies of Chief Bresnan and
Assistant Foreman
Rooney. The list of killed and injured is as
follows:
KILLED.
JAMES J. BRESNAN,
chief of the sixth battalion
JOHN L. ROONEY,
assistant foreman of engine
company No. 12.
INJURED.
FRANK COGAN,
fireman engine company No. 12; hands
burned; taken to New York hospital.
EDWARD FARELL,
fireman engine company No. 19, hand and arm
burned.
BERT GALVIN,
fireman engine company No. 14, hands and
arms burned; taken to New York hospital.
WM. HENNESSY,
assistant foreman, Engine
company 18, ankle sprained and hands and arms
burned; taken to New York hospital.
Chief Bresnan had hardly reached his quarters
from a fire in Bassford alley, near East
Eleventh street, when the alarm sent him up to
the fire in the big factory. The building
is six stories high, and on the ground floor it
extends through to West Twenty-third street.
Above the first story there is an enormous air
shaft between the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
street partitions of the factory. With the
exception of the second floor, which was used by
H. R. Horner
& Co. furniture dealers, the entire
building on Twenty-fourth street was occupied by
Cassidy & Son. Loss, $50,000.
Fort Wayne News, Fort Wayne, IN 29 Dec 1894
 Search
for more information on New York Fires
and other disasters in the Historic
Newspapers Collection. The number of
newspapers on line has recently doubled - search
over 1000 different newspapers. Use this
Free trial to search for your ancestors.
Search for ancestors in
New York City among billions of names at ancestry.com. Use this
Free trial to search for your ancestors.
The New York
Times, New York, New York Read it online at ancestry.com.
Use this
Free trial to search for your ancestors.
New York City
Deaths, 1892-1902 Use this
Free trial to search for your ancestors.
| 
