Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-10-01
THE FALL RIVER HORROR.
Burning Of n Cotton Mill at Faii
River. Mass.-Twenty Lives Lost and
Many Other Persons injured, some
Fatally.

| Burning OF a S0ttom Mbh NJ r@A
! River, Mass.-Twenty Lives Lost and
Many Other Persons Injured some
Fatally.
Bosros. Sept. 10.
The following account of the fire in
Fall River to-day is taken from dis
patch to the Boston Journal.
Mills Nos. and 2, Of the Granite Works,
| had been running about twenty minutes when
| the operatives in No. l were startled with
cry OF fire and the escape of smoke from the
fourth story. In this, next to the upper
| Boor, was the mule-warp spinning depart
ment. and there were nearly 100 girls at work
| under male oyerseer. On the upper floor,
the fifth, about thirty girls were employed,
spooling and warping cotton. These were
| the Youngest of the operatives with
| the alarm the flames seemed TO leap to this
attic, coming from the windows below and
up the great tower i'm the center Of the build
ing, in which were all the stairs communicat-
ing with each story. The fire caught in the
spinning-room, in the northwest end OF
the mill, from friction in mule-head, and
spreading, by means of oil on the floor and
about the machinery, with great quickness,
rushed toward the center tower, the only
means of escape for those in the fourth and
fifth stories besides four fre-escapes, two on
| each gable-end. Once getting into the tower,
the flames ran up to and through the single
ing to the roof timbers filled the two
great roonas, 450x90 feet, with dense black
smoke and flame. While the flames were
making such terrible Roadway the operatives
became fairly wild. The overseers saw there
was no way possible to check the FIRE, and
gave their sole attention to those whom they
had at work. They called to them to save
themselves, and pointed out ways Of escape,
principally fre-ladders. The oyerseer OF the
spooling room, who remained till nearly suffo-
Gated, states that the scene in bis room-and
ii must have been worse in the room below =
cannot be depicted. Children ran about
crying and begging piteously to be
saved, yet wrenching themselves
away when taken forcibly to the
tower while vet there was some chance, or TO
the iron ladder that reached two of the scut-
tle-windows of the south end, opening upon
the roof Of the balcony at the head OF the
Twelfth street fire-ladders. 1t was impossi-
BILE to get the great majority to take this
method TO save their lives. Some wanted
clothing, Others something else. As the fire
frightened them away from these ladders, they
rushed to the windows at the south gable end,
nearly sixty feet from the ground, but dared
not jump down Cotton ropes were put out
for them to slide down by, but no sooner
would a rope be lowered than there
was a rush for it from below. Too many
would take hold, when itwould break, and all
clinging TO it would come down in bunch.
Similar scenes were going on in the mule
spinning room. The flames had assembled
rapidly to the entrance of the tower on the
fourth floor, cutting off their means OF escape,
but the operatives had two ladders of the
south gable directly before them, and were
urged by the overseers and citizens below to
take them. Some did, but others rushed
headlong upon the balcony and dropped or
threw themselves from the guards. There
was ample time for every one TO have been
cayp1 nd n dir tak "a directed
The superintendent, as soon as the alarm
was given, rushed to the upper story, and,
with the oyerseers, did all possible to save life.
When the means provided for escape in the
mill were rendered unavailable by heat flames
and smoke, the people procured beds and mat
tresses for the poor unfortunates TO jump
upon, and many did throw themselves from
windows, to, in almost every case, receive fatal
or terrible injuries.
The firemen worked to keep the flames out
of the south end, whittier many operatives
had fled. Ladders, long as at command, were
used to rescue the girls, and it is said that
four firemen lost their lives while thus en-
gagged. One fireman was lowered from the
roof by brother fremen into the building, and
remained SO long trying to drive girls forth
that he had to be let 90 by those who held
his rope, driven away by the smoke. and he
was lost.
Morgues and hospitals were speedily i'm
provised, the Mission Chapel being taken for
the latter, and as fast as the girls could be
picked from under the windows of the mill
stretchers were ready to carry them to either
chapel or Central Station. AT the latter place
twenty-five bodies were soon lying, and other
unfortunates have been taken to stations or to
homes, In a number of instances bodies
could not be recognized, they were so dis
figured, begrimed and dirt-covered. In
Mission Chapel were those whose sufferngs
were intense
Every doctor In the city was summoned at
the earliest moment 1t is not too high to
place the number killed at forty, and the in
jured at twice that number
Julia Coffee states that when she first
heard the alarm Of fire heavy columns of
smoke burst through the spool-room floor
The crowd Of little children surrounded the
overseer, and with him rushed for the stair
case, but they were forced back by the
flames. Then all made for the elevator,
but it would not work. At this
juncture the leaping from the windows COM
meneed. A number Of men In this room be-
gan uncoiling long rope to let the opera
tives to the ground. Several were landed in
safety, whent was burned off twenty-five feet
from the ground. The smoke had become so
dense that those who remained crowded to
the windows for air. Some, leaping head
foremost were killed Others suffocated
fell back and persisted in the flames.
The Boston Heralds account says:
AS far as can be learned under the present
excitement and turmoil, the fire originated at
the tower in the fourth story, and an attempt
was made to extinguish it with pals of water
but Intellectually. During this endeavor
door leading to the spool-room, which opens
south on the tower staircase had To be closed
TO keep the help back and prevent a
panic; but when the flames had gained such
strength that it was found impossible to
quench them the escape OF the girls had been
cut Off The frightened and terrified Great
ures, with the roaring flames on the lower
staircase, rushed in body for the frees
cape, but the dense volumes of smoke that
poured into the room and the biting flames,
forced them to the northeast end Of the de-
partment, at which end, unfortunately, there
were no means OF escape.
Many, in the meantime, had become sufio-
Gated. Others preferring death by falling To
the ground, sprang recklessly from the Win.
dows, and were picked up mangled, bleeding,
dead and dying.
Fall River dispatches of the Goth place
Il