PANIC STRICKEN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 27 March 1911, Page 5

PANIC STRICKEN.

a _ TRAGIC SCENES AT A FIRE. MANY KILLED. GIRLS LEAP FROM WINDOWS. HELPLESS SPECTATORS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrizlit (Ecc. March 27, 0.15 a.m.) New York, March 26. A terrific conflagration, resulting in the death of no fewer than 150 persons, mostly girls, is reported from Washington, where the Triangle Shirt Company's premises are. The fire started on the eighth floor, and when the 'alarm was raised the girls became panic-stricken. Crushed to Death. « In their frenzied excitement many of the terrified occupants of the burning building jumped to the pavement, and sixty of them were crushed by the fall. Fifty bodies were found on the ninth floor, where the flames overtook the occupants. No Outside Firo-escapes. The building was not provided with a single outside fire-escape, and the horrified and helpless crowd watched the girls leap from tho windows, unable to render any aid. '• The partners of the firm, Messrs. Harris and Blanck, escaped across the Toofs, rescuing their two daughters and a governess. A number of tho falling girls crashed through the windows, which were inset into the pavement, and fell into the cellars beneath. Both Were Killed. Thousands of spectators watched a man and woman emerge from one of the ninth story windows. The man kissed the pomi-i and then flung her out to the lifenet, and afterwards leaped himself. Both were killed. Six girls climbed along the electric wires, but the strands parted, and all were killed. The fire brigade succeeded in extinguishing the flamss within an hour after their arri.-al on the scene. The walls were still intact. Students from the Law Department at New York University, which adjoined the burning building, rescued forty .of the occupants across tho roofs of a neighbouring house. The elevator men pallantly stuck t<l their posts, and saved scores nf lives. It is estimated that the building contained 500 occupants.