The worst fire I ever saw -- THE MASPETH STOOP

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Date Posted: 09:17:33 03/08/11 Tue
Author: Administrator
Subject: The worst fire I ever saw

The worst fire that I ever saw in Bushwick happened at the corner of Linden St and Evergreen Ave in 1959. The building was originally built as the Frank Ibert brewery in the late 1800's and occuopied the entire block between Linden St and Grove St. At the time of the fire the property was owned by Frank Winterrath Sr. Frank and his wife Margaret had five children. Frank Jr, Eddie, Marie, Margie, and Edna. Frank junior lived with his wife Tillie in an apartment over a saloon at Palmetto St and Evergreen Ave, the rest of the children lived in the Winterath house. Eddie was the neighborhood grease monkey and mechanic, Marie was the sweet one and had a cocker spaniel named Cuddles, Margie was the business type lady, and Edna was the tomboyish type biker. The fire did not start in the house. It started in one of the smaller buildings mid-block that was used by a guy nameed Ralph as a lamp factory, but because of all of the chemicals there it quickly spread to the woodframe structure. Pop Winterrath (as everybody called him) refused to leave the burning building and had to be strapped to a chair by firemen and carried out. My dad and sister could not get home from the el station on Broadway because firemen had the whole area blocked off. The smoke was so bad that we had to watch what was going on from behind closed windows in our apartment building. In the picture below the house has a triangular orniment on the roof in the middle of the building and on the buildings corner there is a round cupola at the top. Both of these had been removed a few years before the fire because they were in danger of falling to the street. During the fire the family lost just about everything they owned, but neighbors came to the rescue with clothing and every type of household item you could think of. The Winterraths managed to secure an apartment at 85 Linden St which was just a few doors away from their former home. Rumor has it that Ralph, the guy that owned the lamp factory started the fire for the insurance not realizing that it would spread to the house. That was never proven. He eventually opened a new place in Ridgewood at Himrod St and Metropolitan Ave.
Its been 52 years since the fire and that piece of land is still a vacant lot.

THE WINTERRATH HOUSE, LINDEN ST & EVERGREEN AVE.

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