The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-18

TROY. N. Y, Feb. IA small boy
.arelessly throwing a match into a
ollie of oily waste mass of flames, 800
Girls and women frenzed with fright
fighting for life as the hot flames chas-
ed them with hungry tongues, was the
beginning of a fire tonight that con-
s,,med thousands of dollars worth of
property and caused the destruction Of
many lives.
From the outside of the high build
ing the first notice of impending disas-
ter 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 en-
trance Following them was mass OF
smoke and ashes with flashes of hot
flame in lurid streaks. Then the mass
of
FRENZIED HUMANITY,
finding the expresses too small for in
slant escape, began climbing over the
sides Of the escapes. and bundles Of
clothing filled with writing humanity
dropped at the feet of Mortified pass
erS-bY.
Within twenty minutes after the fire
started there were three dead women
laid upon the floor Of an adjoining store
and at least d dozen burned and MAIN
ed girls and women taken to the hos
pital or to their homes.
OF the $50 girls and women in the
building it is presumed that at least
a half dozen are in the ruins, for it
is impossible to locate all and there
may possibly be score 'of dead
1t was just thirty minutes before
closing hour in Stettheimer & Co.'S
shirt waist factory on River street,
and $50 girls and women were work
ing rapidly to finish up. In the cutting
room on the fifth floor the $50 girls
were closing up their days assign
7nents and preparing to leave when the
whistle blew Lille Kreiger, who was
working near a machine, called to
small boy to light the gas over her
work. The boy struck d match and
threw the burning stub on the floor.
1t struck a pile of oily rags and in an
instant the girl was
ENVELOPED IN FLAMES.
With her clothes and hair burning
she rushed to the window and at once
uhe room became a struggling, Shrek
ms mass of humanity, filing the win
dows the fire escapes and the only
stairway. tanning and pushing,
tearing each others clothes from their
backs, turning in narrow corridors to
find a 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 flames that
seemed TO be growing to a monstrous
size.
With rare presence of mindl~Police-
man Farrell, who was on the street,
seeing that in the panic number We're
liable to jump, let down the awning
over the entrance. Barely was it down
when two or three forms
CANE FLYING DOWN
from the fifth and sixth stories and
bouncing from the awning fell to the
sidewalk.
Lilly Krieger. over whose machine
r. 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 staggered
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 to get the ladders
up.
AT the center window on the sixth
floor woman hanging by her hands
was forced out by the flames licking
her facc. With last scream she let
30 and came tumbling over and over
until she struck the pavement. When
picked up it was found that she was
Mrs Margaret Carroll Her spinal col
unn was forced through into her brain.
PICKED UP DEAD.
Just below her, in another window
hung a woman turning appealing
chances 10 the crowd. The black smoke
ffsrur f1an hut
yet no flames were visible. and the
crowd yelled encouragingly to her to
hold on but high red fame reached
out Just then and licked her face. and
in IN instant her body was reboundine
from the pavement She was Mrs. Fo-
ley, a widow, and when picked UP was
dead.
on the same floor, hanging from an
other window, was another woman,
and salvation in the shape of a ladder
WIS most within her grasp when her
strength failed and she went twirIing
down to death. She was Mrs Kane.
The fremen and police worked like
heroes and to their energy was due a
great saving of life. At least a dozen
women and girls were carried down
the ladders or dragged out OF the cor
Vidors. the officers and firerreu going
into the midst of the smoke. I he fire
burned so fercely by this time that no
detailed search Of the building could
he made. and Srom what can be learned
there were many girls and women on
the three upper stories. either lying in
fafnting fits or overcome by the smoke
1T was this fact sslat led to the rumors
that there We're
AT LEAST TWENTY WOMEN DEAD
and the story, even at this writing.
does not seem improbable.
-, Il.