Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-27
Fright-Maddened Women Leap
from Newark Inferno to
Death on Streets
FIFTY PERSONS ARE INJURED
Tender Bodies Rain from Win
doWs While Helpless Crowds
KneeI and Pray
ASSOCIATED PressI


NEWARK, N. j., Nov. 26.-In ten
minutes twenty-five girls were burned
| alive this morning, or crushed 20 death
on the pavement on leaping from the
windows and fire escapes of the four
story factory building at Orange and
High streets.
On the top floor. occupied by an un-
derwear manufacturing concern, the
death list was heaviest. The lower
| floors were occupied by two paper box
| concerns and two electrical fixture
factories.
Tonight twenty of the twenty-five
bodies recovered have been identified
and six girls are still missing. They
may be among the unidentified dead
or yet in the ruins.
The collapse of a wall tonight inter
rupted further search. Fifty were
taken to the hospital, of whom two
may die. Among the injured is Joseph
e. Sloane, deputy fire chief, who was
overtaken by the falling wall and
buried in bricks and rubbish. He is
badly hurt, but may recover.
The rush of the flames was so swift
and threw such terror into the girls
on the top story that the body of one
was found still seated on a charred
stool beside the machine at which she
had been busy when the first cry OF
Horrible as the scene in the smoke
of the crowded upper room must have
been, what befell outside in the bright
sunshine was even more horrible.
ESCAPE is CUT OFF
The building was exceedingly infam-
mable and the first gush of flame cut
off all escape by stairways.
The elevators made one trip, but
took down no passengers. The only
exit was by fire escapes, the lower
platforms of which were twenty-five
feet from the street. Onto these over
crowded and steep lanes, scorchec
dancing hot by the jets from the low!
! er windows, pressed forward a mol
of women. blind with panic, driven by
| the fire and the others behind them.
! a net had been spread beneath th'
| windows and the girls began to jump
| Like rats out of a burning bin,
was the way fireman described the
| descent.
| They came out of the windows Ike
thick treacle rolled upon the heads
of those below them and caseaded of
the fire escape to the pavement, sixty
feet below.
Some of them stood in the windows
outlined against the flames and jumped
clear; others jumped from landings,
still others from the steps where they
stood. The air was full of them and
they fell eVerywhere-into the net, on
the necks of the firemen and fifteen
of them on the hard stone slabs.
When the awful rain ceased there
were eight dead in the street and the
badly crushed that they died in hos
pitals.
NAMES OF KNOWN DEAD
Fifty are still under surgical care.
The dead are:
SADIE HAUSO.
SARAH CREERAN.
GERTRUDE DENTON.
LILLIAN WALTERS.
SOPHIA MADUSKY.
IDA WOOLSEY.
MARY KAVANAUGH.
REY DAVIDSON.
ROSE CLEAlUX.
THERESA TORTORELLA.
MRS, MARY KEARNS.
SOPHIA NICLIWAK.
MATILDA OTTO.
KATHERINE DIEHN.
CARRIE POBRECHT.
MRS. FRANCES KRATHIA.
ABBIE WASHING ON.
MRS. ALICE NELSON.
MRS. BESSIE ROSING.
MRS. MARY LA PIERRE.
Clouds of smoke and showers OF
burning embers rained down on neigh
boring roofs. AS the news flew panic
spread to other factories, where many
of the girls in peril had friends and
relatives. Several. firms had to shut
down for the day.
Italian silk workers knelt in the
street and prayed. Priests and clergy
men worked their way through the
press to give the last consultations to
the dying.
Before any order could be restored
every police reserve in the city had
been called out. 1t was not until to-
night an estimate of the property loss
could be ventured.
BUILDING WAS FIRE TRAP
The fire department now estimates ii
at $165, ,000 The building was four
story brick structure, occupied on the
two lower floors by the Newark Paper
Box company and the A. A. Drake Pa
per Box company; on the third floor
where the fire started, by the Anchor
Lamp company and the Aetna Electric
company, ana on the to- floor by the
Wolf Manufacturing company, makers
of underwear.
The wooden floors were soaked with
oil drippings from the machinery, and
the flames ate their way through them
like pasteboard. When they warped
and weakened the weight OF the ma
chinery tore them from the walls and
they fell into the basement in a horri-
BILE tangle of hot iron and mangleo
humanity.
Sadie Benson, an employe of the Act
ma Electric company. was cleaning an
electric light fixture in a gasoline bath
The gasoline took fire-she does not
know how-and trickled in a little rivu-
let of fame onto the floor, where stood
full can of the fluid. The can eX-
ploded and the burning liquid flew faI
and wide.
eIjNE1nru,e pIIPAIIrN ~ 700