The Portland daily press., 1881-10-14
FATAL FIRE.
Panic Among Operatives in Burn
ing Mill.
TWENTY PERSONS KILLED AND
MANY INJURED.

PHILADELPHIA Oct. 13.-The fire at Land
epberger's mill last night originated In the
finishing room on the second floor, and spread
upwards through the building with amazing
rapidity About forty-five OF the hands,
twelve of whom were girls, were at work on
this floor, but the majority were engaged on
the upper floors. The wooden stairways at
either ends of the building were soon ablazs
The bridge connecting the building with
another mill was shut off from approach by
fre-proof doors, and in the absence OF any
fire escape panic instantly ensued among the
men and women confined within the building
They rushed to the windows, crying iranuc-
ally to the crowd below to save them. IL was
proposed by the crowd to form square IN tne
street, and catch the men ana glris as they
leaped out, hut before anything could be done
a Young woman leaped from the fifth story
1t seemed that every bone in her body was
broken, for she never bre8thed again. After
this the imprisoned people seemed TO become
frenzied, and though the crowd OUTSIDE sougne
to encourage them by shouting that help
would speedily be there they began jumping
from the windows like sheep. A man, ap-
palently bereft of reason, flung himself head
long to the street, and while MS Dody was
still ia the air others followed, now man,
then a woman or half-grown girl, until in
few minutes eleven human beings, one and
all unconscious with fractured skulls and
broken limbs, were being carried by tender
hands to the neighboring saloon, on the floor
OF Wllcl DOQy aIU0r UOuy was idlu III q roWs uu-
til vehicles were procured to convey them to
the hospitals.
By this time the relatives o. the victims be-
gan to gather outside the building, and the
cries of mothers outside TO their children SILL
in the burning rooms, and their lamentations
over those who had jumped and eeen literally
dashed to pieces were heart-rending to hear.
When the firemen were ready TO enter the
building they found on the third floor the bod
les of two females burned almost to a crisp,
and a man badly scorched and dead, but be-
fore thew could search further the fourth floor
with its heavy machinery came crashing
through, and they barely escaped with their
lives The firemen were compelled then TO
desist in their labors because the floors had
gone through to the ground, and the machin-
cry, charred wood, and what remained OF the
unfortunate operatives (ten or dozen) were
mingled together in unrecognlzable mass,
which was seething and sending out columns
of steam as the cold WAGER was poured upon 1t.
The victims were carried off in all direc-
tiona, some to their homes, some to houses
close by, and others to the various hospitals,
SO that the exact number cannot yet be stated.
The physicians say that nearly every one OF
the cases admitted to ST. Mary's Hospital will
result fatally. The total number OF deaths
will probably exceed twenty, there being ten
dead bodies in the ruins
The coroner's list gives the number OF fatal
tiles by Yesterdays fire as eleven, all OF whom
have been identified with one exception, The
injured number twenty and it is thought some
of them will die.