Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 74-75 (one of the oldest photos in Naked City)

I Cried When I Took This Picture
Mother and daughter cry and look up hopelessly as another daughter and her young baby are burning to death in the top floor of the tenement… firemen couldn’t reach them in time… on account of the stairway collapsing.
Weegee, Naked City, 1945, pp. 74-75

New York Daily Mirror, December 15, 1939

As 2 Kin Died
Mrs. Enrique Torres and daughter Ada, saved from Brooklyn fire, look up at burning tenemnt, with terror in their eyes. They know two relatives are trapped on top floor. Later theur bodies were found.

Daily Worker – Peoples Champion of Liberty, Progress, Peace and Prosperity, December 15, 1939, p.1

Mother and Son Die in B’klyn Tenement Fire
Fire roared through an old tenement in Brooklyn at 2 A.M. yesterday and took the lives of Mrs. Ramionia Malava, 30, and her 7-year old son Edward.

The four-story tenement at 41 Bartlett St. was occupied by twelve families, all of whom managed to get out except Mrs. Malava and her boy, who were trapped in a rear apartment on the fourth floor. Their charred bodies were found near a window, indicating they had been overcome while trying to escape…

Daily Worker – Peoples Champion of Liberty, Progress, Peace and Prosperity, December 15, 1939, p.1

New York Times, May 27, 1941

39-41 Bartlett St., 2011-2019