A fire broke out on the third floor of a four-storey apartment house. When ten members of the Gordon family, who lived on the fourth floor, heard about the fire and that it was moving upwards, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon woke their seven children and ushered them towards the fire escape. When their eldest twenty-two-year old son Ralph couldn't find his four-year old sister Louise, however, he went back inside to find her. Louise was actually already safely outside with the rest of the family. Ralph's body was subsequently found an hour later by fireman. Smoke but not fire had penetrated the Gordon's apartment. A relative of the Gordon family, Miss Sarah Speaks, filed a formal complaint with the fire commissioner. She alleges that although she warned firemen that Ralph Gordon was trapped inside the building, they did little to help him.