Third Fire in Day Wrecks West End Synagogue; Damage $200,000

The Fire Department pressed today, without immediate result, an investigation into a three-alarm fire which burned out the West End Synagogue, one of the largest Reform temples on the West Side and caused damage estimated at $200,000 or more.

The fire was discovered raging at 2:45 p.m. yesterday and followed two early morning fires of evidently incendiary origin which had been extinguished with little trouble. Alexander Kinderman, German Catholic caretaker of the synagogue, was questioned by Chief Fire Marshal Thomas Brophy and detectives for several hours until after midnight today and then released.

Fire Commissioner John J. McElligott, announcing an official investigation, said: “Neither time nor energy will be spared in this investigation. If the fire might have been incendiary, the dastardly culprit or culprits must be apprehended. There is not a man in the New York City Fire Department who is not ready to give his services in tracking down the guilty one or ones. To the members of the West End Synagogue I extend my deepest sympathy.”

The two earlier fires, occurring simultaneously at 1:45 a.m. yesterday in a basement classroom of the synagogue and in a curtain over the platform of the basement assembly hall, caused little damage. The third, however, destroyed the Ark of the Covenant and 18 hand-illuminated Sefer Torahs, and damaged a $25,000 pipe organ. Flames, smoke and firemen’s axes wrecked the entire south end of the synagogue.

Kinderman, employed at the synagogue for 25 years, told Fire Marshal Brophy, who is conducting the investigation, that smoke from the earlier fires had awakened him. He put them out with a fire extinguisher and called the police, who found several suspicious circumstances.

Several hundred peoples assembled for Passover services yesterday morning. By one p.m. Kinderman was the only person left in the building and the doors were locked. He said he retired to the tower for a nap, smelled smoke and ran downstairs to find the fire spreading rapidly through the synagogue. The fire burst through stained glass windows and almost spread to a neighboring building.

While Dr. Nathan Stern, rabbi of the synagogue, expressed the certainly all three fires were incendiary, Deputy Fire Chief Lawrence Fisher said yesterday there seemed no real evidence of incendiarism in the afternoon fire. He said a short circuit might have been the cause.

The Sunday school usually held at the synagogue was conducted today in a nearby community house.