Firefighter - Fire sale today only 1916 Postcard

Colourized photo from 1916, June 30th 8pm Original title: Fire in E. 14th st Location: 116 East 14th St, New York, NY At about 7pm in June, a fire broke out next door to Fox City vaudeville movie house. 900 people were able to escape from that location out the back. The cause of the fire was unknown, but there was a film company, and they used film that was made of nitrate, which is very flammable. And once on fire, it doesn't go out easily. The building had an internal alarm system which tripped off, letting firefighters know where to go. Later street alarms were pulled. By the time they got there, all the floors were on fire. There were four people in the building, all of which had to climb through a burning staircase to get out. They actually tried the elevator first. The fire was under control in about an hour, and it would have taken less time, but they had a double ceiling, and had to hack through that. But even after that it took another 2 hours to totally go out, as things were still smouldering. In total the building had $60,000 worth of damage (roughly $1.3 million of today's money). At least a half dozen businesses were destroyed, and it backed up street cars in the area for 2 hours. The movie house next door had some minor damage, but it was put out very fast.