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The bathhouse had been ordered to install the sprinkler system a year ago, but the deadline for its operation was not until July 27th. A sprinkler system had been installed at the baths but was not hooked up to a water supply. In the aftermath Fire Commissioner John O’Hagan’s men found a number of spent fire extinguishers in the charred ruins of the two upper floors. Most of the dead were identified by friends rather than family.
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About a dozen others were brought down from windows by firemen.įire officials said firemen had to hack their way through into the inside since many windows had been sealed with sheet rock or asbestosĪll in all between 80 and 100 patrons left the building nobody knows the exact number of men who were inside the club because it did not have registration book and at the time in 1977 many patrons did not want to be publicly identified.
Some were injured jumping from the third floor. Many occupants ran onto the street wearing only towels. By the time firemen arrived at the scene on West 28th Street flames were roaring through two floors of the bathhouse. The fire spread rapidly through the building which was filled with 6 1/2 foot-by-4-foot wooden cubicles separated only by partitions. People were yelling, ‘This way down! This way down!’ I only had a towel around me, but I had to leave.” “I tried to run back to the room to get my things, but the maze of hallways had filled up with smoke. I could smell something burning, so I ran down to the lobby and yelled to the man at the desk that there was a fire. “When I opened the door I could see a red glow coming from underneath the door of the room across the hall. It was just after 7 o’clock so I figured I’d wake Christopher, my friend, so we could get started on the drive back.” “It all happened so fast,” said Michael James, 29, who said he had driven up from Philadelphia Tuesday evening. Three stories of the rear portion of the building collapsed as firemen searched for victims. When the first of some 200 firemen and 32 pieces of equipment arrived shortly after 7 a.m., some of the occupants were hanging from the windows, crying for help. Electricity was cut off by the fast spreading flames, leaving patrons trapped and screaming in dense smoke.Īs the flames engulfed the brick building, scores of male customers ran into the street in towels, underwear or trousers. But the mattress apparently smoldered and the fire erupted again about an hour later in the same room. in a mattress and patrons extinguished the flames themselves. Police said a fire had started about 6 a.m. Seven died from smoke inhalation, one from respiratory burns, and one man who jumped from an upper floor. On the quiet morning of nine patrons aged 17 to 40 years old were killed, and nine others were injured when an out of control fire swept through the establishment. It was raided again in 1920 with 15 arrestsīy the early to mid 1920’s it became the community’s preeminent social venue and had the reputation of being one of the “classiest, safest, and best known of the baths” eventually picking up the nickname The “Ever-hard” On January 5, 1919, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice encouraged a police raid in which the manager and nine customers were arrested for lewd behavior. Everard’s originally intended it to be for general health and fitness. He converted the building located at 28 West 28th Street in New York City into a bathouse. Everard also operated the Everard brewery on 135th Street. The Everard Baths was a Turkish bath founded by financier James Everard in 1888 in a former church building.