Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1879 — Six Fersons Bunted to Death. [ARTICLE]

Six Fersons Bunted to Death.

Fire was discovered* about, eleven O’clock last night, by a neighbor, in a one-story frame house in Bdwery street, Cohoes. The building was occupied by a family named Rourke, consisting of the father, Patrick, aged fifty-three; Mary Ann, the oldest child, twenty-two; Timothy, sixteen; Bridget, fourteen, and Martin, Owen and Willie, * respectively, eleven, nine and five years old. All were in bed and asleep when the lire was discovered, and the neighbors, who gathered aro&nd the burning building and broke open thadoorvwith axes, were unabfe, oh account of the fire and smoke, to enter the bouse. A ladder was procured, and Stephen Monk entered through a window! He found Patrick , Rourke lying on the floor, between two’barrels, alive but unconscious. Rourke had evidently fallen while trying to reach the window. He was carried out, gasped a few times, and expired. In the same room was found Mary Ann, Who was still alive and conscious, but badly burned. It was evident that she had inhaled the flames. She was carried to a neighbor’s house, and modicil aid was summoned. She lingered until this morning, when death ended, her sufferings. When the firemen armed, one side of the building was torn down, and close to the wall, lying on the floor, was found Bridget, who somehow had escaped the flames, but had fallen to the floor from suffocation. She was carried to a place of safety, and was restored to consciousness.” Thp girl will recover. In a room a short distance from where Bridget ,wa» fpund, the dead body of the youngest lad, Willie, was found lying on the floor, the features scarcely marred, but the. fewer limbs badly burned. After the fire was extinguished search was made for the remains of the three other children, and in the center of the kitchen, close together, the bodies were found, charred beyond the possibility of recognition. They were placed in one coffin. The family originally was composed of nine members. The mother died three years ago; one son is iri the Penitentiary; one girl was saved from the burning building, and the remaining six perished in the flames. It is believed that the fire was caused by the explosion of a lamp.— Troy (N. K.) Telegram to N. Y. Times.