THE NEW YORK FACTORY FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 306, 20 May 1911, Page 10

THE NEW YORK FACTORY FIRE.

STItKAM of FALLING ISODJKS. VICTIMS IM'.XNKI) IN ISL'KNIXt; snil < icwi. New York, March "25. Oiu 1 hundred ami forty-eight persons—-jiiiic-Lctitlis nf them girls from the East Side- were crushed to death on the pavements. -mothered in smoke, or liurned to a crisp ill a factory lire this afternoon in tlie worst disaster New York lias known since the steamship General Sloenni burned to the water's edge oil' North IJrotlKT 1 -laml in IHO4. One hundred and furiy-ono bodies had been removed f'om the mills at midnight. and seven of the forty injured had clieil in hospitals. This, it is believed, completes the list of dead, most of whom are unideiii ilied. ■ (iriel'-cnucd relatives besieged the morgue as the bodies were laid out. Nearly all. if not all, of the victims were employed by the Triain.de Waist Company, on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of a ten-storey loft building at 23 Washington Place, on the western fringe of the downtown wholesale! district, l'iiuners of the firm, Isaac Harris and Max lilanck, escaped, carrying with tlieni over an adjoining roof Blanck's ltwo young daughters and a governess. There was not an outside lire escape oil the building. How the lire started perhaps never will be known. A corner on the eighth floor was its point of origin, and the three upper floors only were swept. On the ninth floor fifty bodies were found; sixty-three or more persons were crushed to death by jumping; more than thirty clogged the elevator shafts. The loss to property will not exceed 100,000 dollars. GIRLS, IN WILD PANIC, JUMP. Pedestrians going home through Washington Place to Washington Square at ten minutes to 5 o'clock were scattered by tlie whizz of something rushing through the air before them. There was a horrible thud on the pavement and a body flattened on the flagstones. Wayfarers on the opposite side of the street shaded their eyes against the setting sun and saw the windows of tlie three upper floors of the building black with girls crowding to the sills. "Don't .jump!" yelled the, crowd, but the girls had no alternative. The pressure of the maddened hundreds behind them and the urging of their own fears were too strong. They began to fall to the sidewalk.

.Four alarms were rung within fifteen minutes. Before the engines could respond, before the nets could be stretched or the ladders raised, five girls had fallen from the eighth and ninth floors so heavily that they crashed through the very streets to the vaults below. Tn an hour the lire was out; in half an hour it had done its worst. Probably the death list was complete in twenty minutes. The building stands on a corner, with exposure 011 two sides, but the only fire escape was in the interior, opening 011 a light and air shaft. In all there were seven exits—the single fire escape, two freight elevators at the rear, two passenger elevators in front, and two stairway?. XONE ESCAPE BY EXITS. All of them proved almost useless, and practically,all who escaped either climbed to the roof and scrambled thence to the roof of the building occupied by the American Book Company adjoining, or fled in the first rush for safety before the crush and smoke got too thick. The building stands to-night as a shell intact; the partitions nf architectural tiling between floor and floor are sound, and it is impossible for one who sees I it to imagine how the flames in so short a space of time could have wrought such havoc. Seven hundred hands, 500 of them women, were employed by the shirt-waist company. Many sat in rows at their whirring machines, the tables before them piled with flimsy cloth, the floor littered with lint, and the air itself full of flying, inflammable dust. The first rush of flame was almost an explosion, operators being in their chairs, their lungs seared by inhaling (lames. Others rushed for the elevator shafts after the cars had made their last trip. Still others were pushed off the inadequate interior fire escape. A HUMAN BRIDGE. Three brave men formed a human bridge, across a narrow light shaft and rescued a dozen girls from the tenth floor. The men were not athletes, and their great danger may be appreciated from the fact that the shaft extended from the top to the bottom of the building. There was nothing to break their fall. After the men bad swung themselves across this chasm the girls who were pressing around the top nf the shaft crawled across their bodies to safety. Twelve girls had passed, and the men kept calling out, "Xot. so many at a time; we can't stand it." The girls would not heed this warning. They pressed forward, one after another, until the back of the middle man was broken. The human bridge collapsed, and all were killed. Many bodies were found piled up in the bottom of the shaft. Then a ladder was procured and stretched across the opening, and many other girh were rescued. Among the many stories of heroism is that of a courageous lift-hoy. who kept at his post until the steel cables which supported the cage were twisted bv the beat. One lift bov bolted, but his place was taken by a volunteer from the street. SLIDINO DOWN CABLES. After the lifts jammed, the women and girls who were still penned in above tried to escape by sliding down the cables. Some succeeded and reached the bottom alive, with torn and bleeding hands. The majority, however, were unable to retain a grip 011 the greasy ropes, and were dashed to death, being found in a jumbled mass on top of the cages. When the fire was under control and tne firemen entered the upper part of the building, thev found bodies, some hum- I ed beyond recognition, lying about the floors. J lie majority of the victims were on the ninth floor. There were piles of bodies around the windows, showing that the victims bad retreated as far as possible from the flames. Many of the women had their arms round each other. One who had apparently been suffocated, and was not disfigured, was kneeling in an attitude of prayer. The "fireproof" nature of the building was shown by the fact, that, although the. interior had been burnt out completely. the outer shell of metal and concrete was apparently undamaged. Two members of the firm occupying the upper floors managed to escape over the roof from their offices 011 the tenth floor. BODIES CAME IX A HORRID STREAM. Tn such a horrible stream did the bodies overflow from the windows (hat the fire nets stretched by the first company to arrive were soon gorged beyond capacity. Twelve bodies weighted one net to the bursting-point, but the bodies kept nn fumbling to the pavement through nets that could no longer sustain them.

When the first breath uf ilame curled over the edge uf ;i pile cit' shirting on the eighth lloor, live minutes before quittin* time, hundreds were in line before the cashier's window. In the ollice building across Washington Place scores of men detained beyond ollice hours worked at their desks. One of tliew saw a girl rush to a window, and throw ill) tlie -a.-h. Behind her danced a seething curtain of yellow flame. She climbed to the sill, stood in black outline again-t the light, hesitating; then with a last touch of futile thrill, slipped lur chatelaine bag over her wrist and jumped. Her body went whirling downward through the woven wire ghiss of a canopy to the flagging below. Iler sisters who followed Hashed through the air like rockets. It was Sslt. Irons the eighth lloor to the ground, about !l.">!'t. from tile iiinlli lloor, ll.'ift. from the cornice, and the crackle of llie flames drowned lliejr cries. girls fight for Till'; windows. Si.\ girl.- fought their way to a window on the ninth lloor over the bodies of fallc.i fellow-workers, and crawled out. lo an ciglu-iiieh stone ledge. More than lot) feet above the sidewalk, they crawled to a swinging electric feed wire spanning Washington Place. The leaders paused for their companions to catch ii]) at the end of the ledge, and the six girl- grabbed the wire simultaneously. II; snapped like rotten whipcord, and they crashed down to death. A thirteen-year-old girl hung for three minutes by her llnger-tips to the sill of a tenth lloor window. A tongue of Ilame licked at her lingers and she dropped into a life net held by firemen. Two women fell into the net at almost the same moment. The strands parted, and the two were added to the death-list. A girl threw her pocket-book, then her hat, then her furs, from a tenth floor window. A moment later her body came whirling after them to death. KISS GOOD-BYE AND JUMP. At the ninth floor window a man and woman appeared. The man embraced the woman and kissed her. Then he hurled her to the street and jumped. Both were killed. Five girls smashed a pane of glass, dropped in struggling tangle, and were crushed into a shapeless mass. A girl on the eighth floor leaped for a fireman's ladder, which had reached only to the sixth floor. She misled, struck the edge of the life net and was picked up with her back broken. From one window a girl of about thirteen years, a woman, a man, and two women with their arms about one another, threw themselves to the ground in rapid succession. The little girl was hurried to the New York Hospital in an automobile. She screamed' as the driver and policeman led her into the hallway. A surgeon came out, gave one look at her face, and touched her wrist, "ohe is dead," he said. JUMP THROUGH ROTTEN" BLANK!" One girl jumped into a. horse blanket held by a fireman and a policeman, The blanket ripped like cheesecloth and her body was mangled almost beyond recognition. Another dropped into a tarpaulin held by three men. Her weight tore it from their grasp, and she struck the street, breaking almost every bone in her body. Almost at the same time a man somersaulted down upon the shoulder of a policeman holding the tarpaulin. He glanced oIT, struck the sidewalk, and was picked up dead. Within the building a man on the ninth lloor stationed himself at the door of one of the elevators and with a club kept buck ( lie jirls who had stampeded to the wire cage. Thirtv were admitted to the car at a. time. They were taken down as fast as possible. POLICE BATTLE WITH CROWD. The call for amhulances was followed by successive appeals for police, until over 500 patrolmen arrived to cope with a crowd numbering tens of thonsands—a mixture of the morbidly curious and of half-crazed relatives and friends of the victims. A hundred mounted policemen had to charge the crowd repeatedly to keep it back. Led by Fire Chief Croker, a squad of firemen stormed the stairways and gained access to the building at seven o'clock. Two searchlights from buildings opposite lighted the way for the fighters as they ascended to the top floors. Fifty charred bodies were found on the ninth floor. They lay in every possible posture, some so burned that recognition was impossible. A half dozen were nude, with the flesh hanging in shreds to the bones. BODIES BURNED TO CINDERS. Women 'with their hair burned away, with here and there a limb burned entirely off and the charred -tump visible, were lifted tenderly from the debris, wrapped in oilcloth, and sent by pulleys to the street. Across the street there reste.d on the sidewalk a hundred pine coffins. into which were placed the bodies. As fast as this was done the coffins were carried away in any kind of vehicle that could be pressed into service to the Morgue at Bellevue Hospital and to the Charities Morgue, opened for the first time since the Slocum horror. STUDENTS SAVE FACTORY GIRLS. On the tenth floor of the building adjoining the burning structure is the law department of New York University. Here twenty odd students were listening to a lecture bv Frank 11. Soinmer. formerly sheriff of Essex countv. New Jersey. He saw the smoke and the, girls trapped on the roof. He led his class to Ihe roof of the university quarters, where they found two ladders. The boys seized them, bore them down two flights to the roof of an intervening building, swarmed out of the windows and raised them to the roof of the burning structure. Forty girls were brought down to safctv. Hyman Mcscher. a cutter, slid down the elevator cable ten stories, and was found alive at the bottom, standing in water up to his armpits. Tlis hands were lacerated and his forehead was cut, but otherwise he was unhurt. Just, bow many trips were made bv the elevator will never be ascertained. There are varying reports of heroism at the elevator, but it was impossible Innight to lenrn if the lifts were operated up to the last possible moment. STATEMENT BY THE FIRE CHIEF. Citv officials announced that the usual investigation which follows such a disaster would be started at once. Said Fire Chief Croker: "This calamity is just what T have been predicting. There are 110 fire escapes on this building. T have been agitating that fire I escapes should be put on buildings just such as this. This large loss nf life is due to this neglect." The police sav that to-day's fire is the sixth or seventh in the building wilhin twelve months, all of which, tliev say. oecurved in the shirtwaist factory. The others were trifling. The factory, incidentally. is said to be the first in which operators struck during the widespread shirtwaist strike, settled several months ago. Bv to-day's disaster the total of shirtwaist operators who have perished in New York and vicinity recently is raised to nearly 200. Manv weeks ago twenty-five girls met death under somewhat similar conditions in Newmarket.

MR. BLANC K. Max lilanck, one of the proprietors of the Triangle Waist Company, said tonight:— ''flow or where the lire started I have no idea. There was no explosion; of thai. I am sure. We who escaped by the roof saw nothing of what happened be- £ low its. Probably We were the la-t persons to get out of the building alive. I cannot understand why the people on the eighth lloor could not have escaped had they not been thrown into a panic. They could have made their way out by the lire escapes in the rear. This means of rescue, however, was cut oil' to those on the ninth and tenth floors by the ilames." Mothers, fathers, and other relative-, almost mad with grief, stormed the police lines at the Morgue to-night. Hy sterical women fell in the slrccLs and had to be carried away in the already overburdened ambulances. Among the bodies are more than lil'ty beyond all semblance of human form, and they will have lo share a, common grave as unidentified dead. At midnight policemen and firemen were -till lowering Imdic- from the ninth and lentil floors under the glare of searchlights. Sobbing hundreds were kept back by the police as the work progressed. The .Morgue was far too small to accommodate the dead, and the so-called Charities pier contained the bulk of the charred bodies. The bodies were ranged in long lines down each side of the pier, each in a wooden collin such as the city provides for its pauper dead. 'ITIE DAY AFTER. New York, March 2l>. What will go down to history as the lire disaster of Washington Square entered upon its aftermath to-night with Si! of nearly 150 victims identified. The official death list has been lessened rather than increased. A revised count shows 141 dead tonight, with twelve women and girls at deatil's door in the hospitals. One hundred and fifty, all told, will perhaps conservatively cover the casualties when those whose horrible hurts and burns are fatal shall have joined their fellow-work-ers in pine collins at the Morgue. Careful counting still rates the female victims, young and old, at approximately twelve to every one male. Broadly speaking, they were Jewish and Italian, living either 'on the East Side or in a small Italian quarter near the scene of the fire. Nearly all the dead were under 30 years old, the large majority being he-1 tween 17 and 22. Many were only 10 and a few 15 years old.* W itli all the dead recovered from' the building, the Coroner began an investigation into the disaster—one of several inquiries which will be conducted by city departments—aided bv agents from the District Attorney's office. An inquest will be held and its results will be placed before the Grand Jury. Manv Grand Jurymen visited the 'scene, anil District Attorney Whitman announced that those responsible for the loss of life would be rigorously prosecuted. On Thursday night a mass meeting will be held at Cooper Union to agitate ' for more adequate protection of so-called fireproof buildings. WILL RELIEVE DISTRESS. The United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew tree Hurial Societies announced to-night that they were ready to relieve any distress caused by the fire. The Independent order of'lVNal B'Rith has opened a subscription fund throughout New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and a portion of Canada for the sufferers. Directors of the Metropolitan Opera House have offered the building free for a benefit performance. Dr. George M. Price, chairman of the investigating committee appointed liy the Cloak, Suit, and Shirt Industry of New York last September to investigate and remedy unsanitary and protective conditions affecting members of that union, gave out to-night a statement with a long list of factory buildings which, he says, fail to comply with fire regulations. ''What was expected has happened," says the statement. "Those who knew of the flimsy protection in the lofty buildings of New York long ago predicted such a disaster as occurred at Washington Place. If, however, this building was the only one of those unprotected the situation would not be so terrible. But the fact is that there is hardly a large loft building in New York which 'is better protected against lire." FIRE ESCAPES INADEQUATE. In a statement to the press issued to-day, Borough President McAneny said that 500 firemen, recently detailed by Fire Commissioner Waldo for the purpose, reported 3500 buildings lacking adequate lire escapes. The Building Department has already investigated 700 of these 3500 eases, and reported that only 10 per cent, of them were in violation of the building code. The Ash building, in which Saturday's disaster occurred, had not been reached among the cases reported by the Fire Department. McAneny urged a thorough revision of the code, taking the provision of fire escapes to a commission of building and fire experts appointed by the city. \\ bile a crowd of morbid thonsands was held hack by the police, firemen all the morning with grappling irons and fire-hooks sought victims in the Hooded cellar of the building. A steam pump emptied the basement of water during the morning, and the firemen believed, when they rested at the dinner hour, that they would find no more dead. To-night, however, they carried out another body, making three recovered during the day. The overcount last night was probably due to checking of a charred portion of a body as a corpse.