THREE-ALARM FIRE HEAVILY DAMAGES MURRAY
STREET JEWELRY FACTORY

September 12, 1910

At 08:10 hours, only 18 hours after battling the three-alarm factory fire at Ferry and Union Streets, firemen found themselves at another three-alarm fire involving the 16-month-old, Shiman-Miller Building, at 98-104 Murray Street, and 49-55 Austin Street. The corner, multi-occupancy factory, was of brick construction, five stories in height, and measured 95-by-100 feet. All of the tenants were silversmiths and jewelry manufacturers, and occupied the building as follows: Eastwood Parke Co., first floor and part of second; Lowres Optical Co., second floor; Henry Ziruth, third floor; Shiman-Miller Co., fourth floor, and Eckfeldt & Ackley, and Harvey V. Osborne, fifth floor.

It was shortly after the start of the work day that James Connelly, and some of the girls working in the Eastwood Parke Co., on the second floor, discovered a fire. The girls’ screams attracted the attention of Henry Helmhauser, who worked on the third floor. He raced downstairs and attempted to extinguish the blaze, seriously burning his hands in the process.

The arrow points to the fire building, which is also marked with a cross. The ex-
posure at the rear was the building that was under construction, with the double
red lines indicating the planks the girls walked over to safety.

In the meantime, another employee, George Klement, ran to the corner of Murray Street and Tichenor Lane, a block east, and turned in an alarm from Box 326. Back at the factory, clerks and several employees rushed about gathering up precious metals and gems used in their businesses, and threw them into huge safes, slamming the doors shut. The fire was gaining headway, sending heavy smoke up through the upper floors cutting off the only hallway exits. Flames were pouring from the windows in the center rear area of the building, enveloping the inadequate fire escapes, making them unusable.

When the first of Newark’s Bravest arrived at the scene, it was obvious that they were faced with an extraordinary fire to fight, and that a large loss of life was threatened. Girls were seen at windows on the upper floors, their screams for help being heard above all other noises. The scope of the blaze prompted the rapid sounding of second and third alarms.

Elmer Hartenstein, 24, of 210 Avon Avenue, was seen, along with several girls, at a top floor window, their escape having been completely cut off. A dozen firemen manned a life net and Hartenstein jumped. He landed in the side of the net and then rolled over into the street. He was picked up by Patrolman Al Cleveland and taken to City Hospital, where it was found he had suffered non-life threatening, internal injuries. A shout of joy then went up from the crowd as it appeared the girls had made it down to the fourth floor.

Directly behind the blazing building, at 45-47 Austin Street, another five-story brick factory was in the process of being erected. Workmen, who had just started work for the day, got the framework completed up to the fourth floor. Led by their foreman, they placed planks from the fourth floor of the unfinished building to the same floor of the fire building. Across these planks the girls walked in single file, with the crowd cheering them on. After all the girls safely made it across, Foreman Vernon Palk, of the Shiman-Miller Co., carried an old man named Victor, across the planks on his shoulders.

As all this was taking place, firemen battled their way through the heavy smoke to the upper floors, where they found girls that had fainted on every floor, leading them to believe, for a time, that there had been a great loss of life. Salvagemen Van Ness, Campbell, Dunlap, and Eisner carried the following girls down ladders as the crowd cheered their work: Annie Tickett and Mabel Brewster, of 69 Commerce Street; Anna Powell, of 354 Badger Avenue; Ethel Craven, of 22 Hunter Street; Adeline Palmer, of 164 Astor Street; Martha Mohr, of 127 17th Avenue; Mary Sammet, of 316 West Runyon Street, and Mollie Conrower, of 152 Livingston Street.

After it had been discovered that all 300 girls and 200 men were out of the building, firemen turned their attention toward attacking the flames. After an hour’s battle they had the blaze under control. The spectacle was witnessed by thousands who had gathered to watch the heroic work of the firemen and others. The building was owned by the Shiman brothers, Morris and Simon, whose main office was on Maiden Lane, in Manhattan.

The fire was contained to the second, third, and fourth floors, with the fifth floor suffering very little damage. Even though the fire was very hot, the precious metals and gems that had been locked away in safes, escaped the flames’ wrath, or else losses would’ve been much higher. James Connelly was the first to discover that in all the excitement, someone had snatched a gold open-faced watch. The total fire losses were placed at $147,549 ($3.4 million).

The building still stands today, along with the building behind it that was under construction at the time of the fire. On a historical note, this building sat directly behind the Hotel Lucerne, at Broad and Murray Streets, which was destroyed in a spectacular three-alarm fire, on December 30, 1977, in which eight men perished. The Shiman-Miller Building was an exposure, whose wired windows were cracked and sprinkler systems activated, by the extreme radiant heat given off by the blazing hotel.