Record Data
Transcription
TENEMENT HOUSES. – The Coroner’s jury, in the case of the persons burned last Thursday in a tenement house in New York, have given their verdict, which is just and impressive. They say that the building was constructed without regard to the safety of its occupants in case of fire, having no means of escape after egress by the main entrance had been cut off, as it was higher by two stories than the building which adjoined it, thus preventing escape by the roof. They pronounce Mr. Edmund Waring, the owner, responsible, to a great extent, for the loss of life, as it was his duty to have made provision for a contingency not at all unlikely to occur in buildings as overcrowded as this. They call the attention of the legislature to the number of buildings in New York constructed on similar plans, and recommend the enactment of a law requiring the owners of tenement buildings to place iron stairways, or some other approved means of egress, on the outside, and that their height be limited to five stories.