The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-09-29

THE FALL RIVER RESPONSIBILITY


ANr INCIDENTS. tta .i e.fiA
The Springfield Mass.) Republican. of the
Odd inst, contains the following facts con-
corning the attempt to decide where rests
the responsibility of the Fall River disaster:
The feeling at Fall River. over the terrible
disaster of Saturday, has deepened from in
tense excitement and horror, to profound
sentiment of sorrow at the circumstances
that combined to bring on the calamity, and
of indignation against the mill authorities
and the fire department. The city is
still crowded with people talking
about the catastrophe, and the burials and
labors for the wounded ones make IL gloomy
indeed. The disaster is very generally COM
pared to that of the Pemberton mill at Law
renee in 1860. though that was caused by the
| fall OF a building, and the number of lives
| lost was about 80, while 120 or more were
badly hurt. The utter needlessDess of the
Fall River disaster adds to the pain of con-
templating it. In the first place the boy
Young neglected his duty in not being on
time in the morning and keeping his
most nothing at hand with which to
extinguish the flames after they
started, and, to cap all, not only
was the fire alarm out of order, but the de-
partment was inefficient when it had arrived
There are some pretty hard stories aboutd
both the fire department and the managers
of the mill. The Coffee girl, whose name is
on the list of the dead, declared, just before
dying, that the occupants of the upper
story were fastened in by the authorities of
the mill for fear OF panic, and that she
begged to have the door opened, but was re-
| fused. Others corroborate this statement
but the superintendent denies it. 1t is furth-
| er stated that while the confiagration was
at it's height one of the mill officials or
dered the firemen to cease his efforts to
10 nd n wnakn
hooks and ladders to the other side of
| the building and save the property, saying
that the women had plenty of means of es-
cape. AS for the fire department, some will
have il that 10 minutes elapsed after the
alarm before water was thrown upon the
building Chief Durfee claims, however,
that the hook and ladder companies We're on
the ground four minutes after the bells rang.
1t is also charged that the department had
ladders that might have been so spliced as
to reach the people in the fifth
story, but nothing of the sort was
done, because, it is declared, the
| firemen and their chief were paralyzed with
fear. A good idea of the inception and
progress of the fire may be obtained from
the story of one of the operatives, Matthew
Dillon, who
| SAW THE FLAME
when it started on the boys pulley. when
I first saw the flames" he says, ''they were
what / should call chip fire-very small
indeed. could almost have extinguisbed
them with my hand, and sprang over my
mule and attempted to quench them, but
was unable to do so, as the fire in that one
moment had gained strength, and, like
lightning, had caught the belts, saturated
with oil. and was whirled like flash around
the pulley, connecting with all the belts in
| that vicinity and communicating flames in
one impossible barrier from one side of the
| mill to the other. Seeing in an instant the
emergency of the situation, / grasped
coil of hose attached to my mule
alley, opened the stop-cock and valve,
and, finding that no water came,
| called upon one of the men to go down
and tell the engineer to start the donkey en-
gines. By this time the fire was in a terri
BILE state. called a man named Benderpost,
handed him the hose, hurried to my alley
and opened the valve, waiting for water to
arrive, but none came. Finding water
came, grasped the hose again, sent the man
to order on the water, and maintained my
| position until the hose took fire and drove
me away. fastened to the door, but be-,
ore reached it was compelled TO drop on
my hands and knees and crawl through the
smoke, being the last man to leave the
room, which was at this time, from
the lower door 10 the north end. en-
veloped in flames. There was no water in the
room. neither in pipes nor in pals, to which
cause / ascribe to q great extent the sad dis
aster. 1t is usual IN the mills to keep two
pals, each filled with water, at every pair of
mules, but In this mill it was not the case.
Had the donkey engine forced water through
the pipes in the first instance, the disaster
might have been averted. The water and
pals were located in the tower, and but Is
pals of the former were thrown upon the
fire." Dillon is quite positive that the
bosses were aware of the fire some time be-
fore they informed the operatives in the
story above, and that they were not notified
till the danger was past all remedy. In
deed, he says that it Is the policy of the
managers to keep anything of the sort that
will excite their employees away from them,
to avoid interruption of work. The recovery
of the bodies from the ruins was a horrible
work. In some cases nothing but small
MASS OF CHARRED FLESH AND BONES,
or single bone, could be found, and
indentification of the body itself was imrossi-
BILE. The remains were put into collins to be
shown to searching friends, and in one in
stance only the backbone could be found
The collins containing those that could not
be recognized were marked with such labels
as, 'No. !, a girl about thirteen years old, ("
mo. 8, a full grown woman etc. The
sight of the stricken ones searching eagerly
among the bodies for some sign by which
they could recognize missing friend was
one of the saddest of the " hole scene. For
one of the bodies, that ola woman, there were
two claimants, q man declaring it TO be his
wife, and lady her sister, both being con-
findent from some slight piece OF the
clothing which, had not been burned off
There is an unmistakable demand, not only
from the Fall River people. but from the
press and the public generally, for rigid
investigation of this affair, some observers
of the way things have been managed being
almost furious against those having charge
OF the mill. Superintendent James K. Nc
Creepy, who has denied almost every charge
against the corporation, and who seems to
have been trying to impress it upon the re-
porters that he was quite hero in the at
fair, rushing to the upper story and. at inn
mense personal risk, rescuing many per-
sons, is special object of anger. A great