Morris tribune., 1896-02-19
DAY OF DISASTER
Fatalities From the Troy Fac
tory Fire Said to Be Twenty
to Thirty.
Careless Boy, a Match and Oily
Waste Responsible For
the Blaze.
Half a Hundred Miners Killed
by an Explosion in Col
OradO.

TROY, N. Y, Feb. ia small boy
carelessly throwing match into q pile
of oily waste was the beginning of a
fire that consumed $500, 600 worth of
property and caused the destruction OF
more than a score of lives.
1t was just 30 minutes before closing
hours in Stettheimers & Co.'S shirt
waist factory on River street, and the
$50 girls and women were working rap
idly to finish up. In the cutting room,
on the fifth floor, the $50 girls were
closing up their days assignments and
preparing to leave when the whistle
blew Tillie Kreiger, who was work
ine, near machine, called to small
boy to light the gas over her work. The
boy struck a match and threw the
burning stub of the match to the floor.
It struck pile of oily rags and in an
instant
The Girl Was Wrapped in Flames.
With her clothes and hair burning, she
rushed to the window, and in an in
slant the room became struggling,
shrieking mass of humanity, filing the
windows, the fire escape and the only
stairway. Jamming and pushing,
these girls and women fought for their
lives to get away from the fiery flames
that seemed to grow to monstrous size.
With rare presence of mind, Policeman
Farrell, seeing that in the panic num-
Der were liable to jump, let down the
awning over the entrance. Barely was
it down when two or three forms came
flying down from the fifth and sixth
stories, and, bouncing from the avn
ing, fell to the sidewalk. By this time
nearly every window had female
form dangling from it, and when the
fremen arrived there was a hustle to
get the ladders up. At the centre win
dow on the sixth floor, woman hang
ing by her hands was forced out by
The Flames Licking Her Face.
With last shrek she let go and came
tumbling over and over until she
struck the pavement. When picked up
she was dead A few moments later
two other women jumped from the
floor below and were instantly killed.
The firemen and police worked like
heroes and to their energy was due
great saving of life. The fire burned
so fiercely by this time that no detailed
search of the building could be made,
and from what can be learned there
were many girls and women on the
three upper stories either lying in faint
ing fits or overcome by smoke. 1t was
this fact that led to the rumors that
there were at least ~ women dead, and
the story, even at this writing, does not
seem improbable. One fireman. who
was working from the rear, saw three
girls with their arms wound tightly
about each other turn and
Jump Back Into the Flames,
Some of the women who escaped tell of
stumbling over prostrate bodies, and
are positive that a score of girls per.
ished The girls who did escape live in
various suburban places and hurried
away, so that, until the roll is called in
the morning, the exact number of miss
ing will not be known. The women
killed by jumping from windows were:
Mrs. Margaret Carroll, Mrs. Foley and
Mrs Robert Kane.
The roll call in the morning will evil
dently show that between 20 and 80
people are underneath the ruins.