North Tonawanda NY Evening News 1961

I Cuba Says
3-Min. Capsule
Arms Being
j Air-Dropped
HAVANA (UPI) — The
Cuban government, which
has warned the nation of
an imminent invasion by
the United States, s a i d
t h a t large quantities of
anna and ammunition were
parachuted into two parts I
of Cuba earlv todav.
A press communique issued by
Premier. Fidel Castro's office and
published • in the newspaper El
Mundo said army troops and militia seized the arms. It did not
mention the United States but
said the material "came from the
north.**
One arms drop was reported
between Bahia and Honda about
50 miles west of Havana. The
second was reported in the Condado zone .in Las Villas Province
in the center of Cuba about 180
miles east of Havana.
The communique came' as the'
government cracked down on the'
'thousands of persons seeking to
flee the country, It cut. off exit
permits for Cubans and foreign
residents except Americans.
The halting of the exodus from
the island Friday was the latest
measure' taken by Premier Fidel
Castro's government in putting
Cuba on a "war footing" against
an alleged threat of "invasion"
by the 'United States.
TONAWANDA
River Rd. and Sommer St., North Tonawanda, N.Y. Saturday, January 7, 1961
..
• 1 "
Reynolds Says He
Will Accept Post
SCHENECTADY < UPI'-James
J. Reynolds, former vice president
at Alco Products here, said today
he would accept a position as an
assistant secretary of labor in the
administration of President - elect
John F. Kennedy. Reynolds said
he understood the announcement
of his appointment had been
scheduled for release Sunday.
Temporary Calm
Settles Over Laos
Aerial Ladder Truck in Action at H e i g h t of L a m p l i g h t Hotel Blaze
...Loss Estimated at Upwards of $200,000
;
Winds, Showers
Forecast in Area
A flow of mild Pacific air, which
shot area temperatures' into the
40 degree range today, will be
pushed out by high winds a n d
showers later today and will be
replaced by a, new cold mass by
morning when the temperature is
expected" to drop into the 20s. and
linger there most of the day.
The .Weather Bureau forecasts
snow flurries tonight and squalls
periodically tomorrow. Southwesterly winds increasing 20 to 40
miles an hour today, will become
west to northwest tonight and diminish slowly tomorrow.
J
.
.
.
A two-alarm fire possibly cautsed by faulty wiring e a r l y today swept t h e
jLamplight Hotel and Lounge a t 9 Delaware St., Tonawanda, forcing five families, including 12 children, to flee in t h e i r night clothes. *
F i r e Chief Schreiber estimated the d a m a g e to the Tonawanda landmark a t
"well over $200,000."
He said the fire s t a r t e d in t i e b a s e m e n t of the building, where it apparently
had been smouldering for some time before it was discovered, a t about 2:45 a.m.
Howard Suter, 35, of 154 Whee- *
[
~~
ler St., a member of the Niagara b e e n c a u s e ( j Dy defective wiring, ter and clothing to the burned-out
Hose volunteer fire company, was' „,
, ,
., c.
famili*»<!
admitted to DeGraff \ . "L • ,! Tonawanda s paid firemen were rammes.
Hospital about 4:30 Memorial
w
, , ,
Sheltered bv the Red Cross
a.m.
for
lomed
in
the
early
morning
bat(Other Photos, Page 14)
tle by 80 of the city's volunteers. M r ; a n d M r s P e d r o Ro d ri guez
_ _ 20 of North Tonawanda's paid and their three children, Hilda,
smoke inhalation suffered while firemen and volunteers from 4 : Pedro, 3, and Ronald, 1. They
fighting the stubborn blaze. He N o r t h fonawanda's Columbia a r e sta - vin S a t t n e h o m e °* Mrswas expected to be released later „ ,
,T
„
Carmela Ortez, 756 Oliver St.,
H o o k a i l d Laader
Coi
an
todav.
*
*P >-North Tonawanda. •
Henry Grigware. 64, who occu- F i r e " * n fought the blaze for M r . a n d M r s . Raphael Tapia
pied an apartment in the hotel, about four hours to bring it under and their four children, Carmin,
2 —Jr.,
staying
with friends.
for smoke
inhalation
He hosp
was 4reThe interior of the building was 9Magda,
was
also treated
at the
tai control.
: Mrs.
Raphael
8; Walaper,
Teresa,
7. and
Harriet
78,
leased.
in complete nuns. A section of the h o u s e d with a friend at the Colin
The two-story brick structure
Kelly Heights housing project.
housed-a grill on the ground floor roof collapsed.
Firefighters,
mounting
aerial
j
Mr.«and Mrs. Richard Dean
and apartments and rooms on the
ladders, poured oceans of water and their two children — staying
second floor.
into the building to quell the with friends,
Owners on Premises
blaze.
Mr. Alvaro said he and Mr.
Louis J. Scalzo. 283 Vander- They were still at the scene at 1 Scalzo took over the h o t e 1 and
V
0 1 T
m
u
wat
lounge last June and were leasing
T°°rt uSt•'A,*
** o223
T VVicksburg
^ ' K 1 1 ™ ! P • P° ^™g
Joseph
Alvaro.
. ^ e r on the smoul- it from James Vona, 55 Walter
deri
Ave., Town of Tonawanda. co,.
Ave., Tonawanda.
owners of the hotel and lounge, *'?*T«. ln , ™ baj*meirt had The building is the only hotel in
were in the lounge, together with ™<* e d ^ l e v e l of t h e c e l l a r ™ - the City of Tonawanda and was a
about 30 persons, when the fire a o * s landmarks the city's downtown
first was noticed.
The blaze attracted hundreds of a r e a for the past 50 years.
"Someone saw a wisp of smoke s p eMcrt a t o r s t 0 t h e s c e n e Scores of organizations and
coming from behind the cash reg- e r - Scalzo, who operates oth- clubs, including Rotary, Kiwanis
ister," Mr. Alvaro said, "and we • hotels in the area, said only his and Toastmasters,
conducted
began to joke about it
stock merchandise was covered their regular meetings in the
"Seconds later more smoke be- ** fu^ h™wr*nce. "3 r_d d l s a . € l building,
gan to appear and I went to the " § ^f^L
'
J I . Members of Tonawanda s auxilbasement. I opened the door and ^airman o the Tonawandas Red lary police directed traffic at the
saw the basement completely; en- Cross chapter, and Mrs. Fred fire scene. Mam, Young, Broad
Goergens, branch chairman, wree and Delaware Streets w e r e
gulfed with smoke and fire.
at the scene providing food, shel- blocked off in the area.
"I raced back to the bar and
told my partner to call firemen."
2 Policemen Aid
Two off-duty policemen, who
happened to he at the lounge.
were credited by firemen with
«
rousing about 40 persons who occupied apartments and rooms on
the second floor of the building.
The two, Robert Gross of Tonawanda and Walter Stuba of North
S A N F R A N C I S C O ( U P I ) — A heavy - prinking
Tonawanda, were aided in their
rescue work by Mr. Alvaro.
pensioner faced m a n s l a u g h t e r c h a r g e s today j for t h e
Mr. Scalzo said 16 adults and second w o r s t hotel" fire in San Francisco history — a
12 children occupied eight apart bla?e which killed 20 persons and injured 37 o t h e r s .
ments in the building. Eleven oth—
j
'—•
er apartments were vacant, he "I didn't do nothin'" insisted ®~—I
Raymond
Gorman.
62,
when
he
j
»
be/ore
dawn
S i x t h a n d Miss on
said. Others occupied s i n g l e
was" booked at a police station. F r i d a v rhe b l a z e
thought
rooms.
in
'
quenched once, but sjrang into
Several of the children were
the
48-year-old
Thomas
Hotel
<
at
deadly
new life
life within
withi minutes
y new
carried out by the three men and
spread flame and dense
taken next door to the Delaware
smoke
throughout the five-floor
Hose Company quarters. Some of
structure
where 135 tenants slept.
the families fled from the building
in their night clothes, leaving beNineteen victims perished in the
hind their belongings.
fire or immediately afterwards A
Homes Found
twentieth death was recorded
Red Cross disaster officials
early this morning when Thor
were on the scene and set up an
N'yland died from multiple fracemergency station at the Dela- Robert E. Bruce, Tonawanda tures
incurred escaping the fire.
,
ware Hose Company. Arrange- building inspector, said todav the -"Ost °* t n o s e i n J u r e " i n t n € blaze
ments have been made to tempo- Lamplight Hotel had been given were recovering from the effects
rarily house the tenants with area [ t w o warnings for alleged viola- of smoke inhalation today.
families, the Red Cross reported tion of the state's multiple dwell- The first of five alarms came
All of Tonawandas paid fire- ing residency law.
at 5:10 a.m. and by the time the
men, in addition to four volun- "Chief, Schreiber and myself first of 40 pieces of equipment
teer fire companies, were called made an inspection of the build- and 250 fire fighters arrived, the
to the scene. In addition, aerial ing in November and called sev- death and injury toll had started
trucks from the Brighton Volun-'eral items to the attention of Mr. to climb.
teer Fire Company in the Town' ( L o l u s j , Scalzo," Mr. Bruce Screaming tenants, [almost all
of Tonawanda and an aerial truck ggjl.
of them elderly and' many of
from the North Tonawanda Fire A second and final warning, in- them crippled, poured out of the
Department were summoned by structing the owners to install a front entrance, jumped into fireFire Chief Schreiber.
sprinkler system in the hallway men's nets, or were carried down
Fire Chief Schreiber said, fol- 0f j h e apartment section of the ladders. Near-freezing 36 degree
lowing an examination of the building and to correct conditions weather added to their misery
that the bla?e may jiave in.fie basement, including wiring. The unlucky one-s died in thenwas given on Dec. 20. Mr. Bruce beds or dived out windows to the
said. .
pavement. Many jumped down
He said the owners had 30 days the hotels four-floor lightwell.
from the date of the second warning Uf comply or face court ac-!
BALLOTING HEAVY
tiofi.
ALGIERS I UPI I — French auMr. Bruce said installation of thorities reported today that Arab
fire escapes in the building was villagers are turning out in "subnot feasible because of the lay- stantial" numbers to vote in this
Tonawanda Red Cross officials o u t of the apartment area. He weekends referendum of Presiannounced today that a Disaster, ali*P noted that two hallways dent Charles de Gaulle's Algeria
Headquarters, to aid victims of' "djpad-ended" into bathrooms.
policies.
today's Lamplight Lounge Hotel "
T
fire, has been set up at the TonSmall Talk
By Syms
awanda Red Cross office at Webster and Goundry Streets in North
Tonawanda.
Lester Sielski, disaster director
of the Buffalo area, said any victims who need help in the way of
food, clothing* or shelter will be
able to obtain aid by calling NX
3-1177.
Miss Mildred Wicks, chairman
of the Tonawanda's First Pres**m%
byterian Church World Service
Department, also announced that
her organization had decided to
donate eight cartons of used cloth- •; ^ S l ; ,
ing to help the fire victims. The
clothing, originally intended to be "Did you get the license num"No . . . but a had green
shipped overseas, is being sent to ber of that hit-run car,
striped seat covers and a du§-
Frisco Hotel Fire
Claims 20th Life
Warnings Given
To Lamplight,
Official Says
NY State Once
Boasted Navy
Once 'upon a time. New
York State had "its' own navy.
True, it wasn't much of a .
navy *- -only three rowboats,
as a' matter of fact.
For a more detailed account of this, "navy's" brief
but active career, turn to,
Page 2. The account is another hi the Tonawanda NEWS
historical series, "Our Great
State."
Also in today's NEWS:
Weekend TV
Page 11
Church Notices
Page 3
Bowling
Pages 8, 9
Rocket Fuels
Page it
More Local News Page 12 '
Red Cross Ready
To Aid Victims
Of Hotel Fire
Yarn
9
<> the
M)uy
MONTREAL (UPI) - The
police radio told a patrol car
it wasn't needed at an accident scene Friday night.
"A radio car' on the scene
tells us the vehicle t u r n e d
over, the occupants got out,
turned the car upright, and
continued on their way," the
explained.
•
Firerhan#OneOfher Stricken
By Smoke; Wiring Blamed
DEL RIO, Tex. <UPD - The
world's largest blimp with a crew
of 13 Navy men 'aboard, inched1
its way through tricky air currents Over the Rocky Mountains
today on the final leg; of a coastto-coaat journey.
The cigar-shaped ZPC-2, called
a dirigihle, or by the Navy simply an air ship, was expected to
arrive! over California sometime
late today.
<£=h
Seven Cents
14 Pages
Blaze Sweeps Lamplight Hotel Lounge;
Loss Estimated at Upwards of $ 2 0 0 0 0 0
Blimp Edges Over
Rocky Mountains
ENTIANE, Laos <UP1) —
Temporary calm settled over
strife-torn Laos today but new
clashes between pro-Western government forces and Communistsupported rebels appeared possible at any'moment.
Military sources- said 'there had"
been no new military activity in
the; Red-held Plaine des Jarresj
area, where rebel leaders appar-l
entity were consolidating their po-1
sit ions and feeding and paying
their troops.
Windy
TO
Serving the Tonawandas,
Kenmore, Town of Tonawanda
Established 1880
Weather
Apartments Over Lamplight Lounge After Fire
...Part of Roof CoUapiei Onto Living Quarter!
Untitled Document
Thomas M. Tryniski
309 South 4th Street
Fulton New York
13069
www.fultonhistory.com
Ditaiter Httdquarton, the eud.
Udy...?"
ty pink paint Job."

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