The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1896-02-18
A HOLOCAUST AT TROY.
Terrible Results of a Working
Boys Carelessness.
MORE THAN TWENTY LIVES LOST.

to Death by Dropping from Upper
windows-some Remarkable Escapes.
TROY, N. Y, Feb. 1S-A small boy care
lessly throwing a match into a pile of oily
waste, n blazing mass of flames, $50 wo-
men and girls crazed with fright, fighting
for their lives as the flames chased them
with hungry tongues, was the beginning
of a fire last night that consumed thou
sands of dollars worth of property and
caused the destruction Of many lives.
From the outside of the high building the
first notice of impending disaster was the
sight of body of girls as they rushed out
upon the fire escapes from the windows,
those who were more fortunate crowding
out the entrance.
Following them came a mass of smoke,
with flashes of hot flame in lurid streaks.
Then the mass of frenzied humanity, find
ing the egress too small for instant escape,
began climbing over the sides of the es-
capes, and bundles of clothing filled with
writhing humanity dropped at the feet of
Mortified passers by. Within twenty min
utes after the fire started there were three
dead women laid upon the floor of an adj
joining store and at least a dozen burned
and MANNED girls and women taken to
| the hospital or to their homes.
OF the $50 girls and women in the
building it is presumed that at least half
dozen are in the ruins, for it is impossible
to locate all, and the number, which is
fixed at this writing as over twenty, Is
probably not exaggerated. Police Super
| intendent Willard believes that between
twenty and thirty bodies are buried in the
| ruins.
! 1t was just thirty minutes before clos
/ ing hour in Stettheimers & Co.'S shirt
waist factory, on River street, and the $50
| girls and women were working rapidly 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.
Lilly Kreiger who was working near a
machine, called to a small boy to light
the gas over her work. The boy struck II
match and threw the burning stub to the
floor. 1t struck pile of oily rags, and in
an instant the girl was enveloped in
flames With her clothes and hair burn
ing she rushed to the window, and in an
instant the room became struggling,
shrieking mass of humanity, filling the
windows, the fire escapes and the only
stairway. Jamming and pushing tear
ing each others clothes from their backs,
! turning
sister or mother or friend, the number in
the exits, augmented every minute by
those from the other floors 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 who was on the street, seeing that
In the panic number 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
awning fell to the sidewalk Lille Kreiger,
over whose machine the fire started, was
one of these. She struck the awning, fell
on her back and bounced to her hands and
knees on the walk. She got up and stag
gered about until people helped her to her
feet again.
BY this time nearly every window had a
female form dangling from it, and when
the firemen arrived there was a hustle tC
get the ladders up. At the center win,
dow on the sixth floor a woman hanging
! by her hands was forced out by the flames
licking her face With last shrek she
let go and came tumbling over and ovei
until she struck the pavement. When
picked up it was found that she was Mrs
Margaret Carroll. Her spinal column wa:
forced through into her brain,
Just below her. in another window
hung a woman turning appealing glance'
to the crowd. The black smoke was pour
ing from the window, but as yet no flames
were visible, and the crowd yelled encour
agingly to her to hold on, but higher ret
fame reached out just then and licked he
face, and in an instant her body was re
bounding from the pavement. She wa
Mrs, Foley, widow, and when picked VI
was dead. On the same floor hanging
from another window, was woman, anC
salvation in the shape of a ladder was al
most within her grasp when her strength
! failed, and she went twirling down Il
n death. She was Mrs. Kane.
The flremen and police worked lik
heroes, and to their energy made grea
saving of life. At least dozen womel
and girls were carried down the ladders o
dragged out of the corridors, the officer
and firemen going into the midst of tn
smoke and flames.
The fire burned SO fiercely by this tim
that no search of the building could b,
made, and from what can be learned ther,
were many girls and women on three up
per stories, either lying in fainting fits o.
overcome by smoke. 1t was this fact thai
led to the rumors that there were were a,
least twenty women dead, and the story
even at this writing does not seem i'm
probable.
The flames ate down through three
floors so quickly that the Western Union
Telegraph company, Jessup 81 Gooppner's
Crockery company and Vanzandt q
, Jacobs Collar mandatory had no time
to save anything. One house, after the
fire started, caught from the falling of {
portion of the roof, and from It small
buildings on the south caught
About s clock the tiremen heard shriek
coming from the two story building OF
the south and they discovered an italian
peddler named Joseph Rossi, who kept
stand in front of the building, pinionet
by the legs under heavy beam. Three
policemen started to assist him. and witt
a fireman worked for three quarters OF al
hour. They had just about gotten hin
loose when with roar the great soutl
walls came crashing down, and the horrl