Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1911-03-31
.I4l PERISH IN FIRE
SCORES or EMPLOYEES DIE BY
JUMPING FROM BURNING
sHgRTWAIST FACTORY.
OTHERS KILLED IN PANIC
Fire MsrshaI's Inquiry Reveals Fact
Workroon1 Was Death Trap-That
Disaster Result Of Cigarette Srok-
lng--e6 Victims Are Identified.

New York.--Of the 14I employees,
mostly girls and women killed in a
Ere in Triangle shirtwaist factory at
he corner Of Greene street and Wash
ington place Saturday. Sc have been
identified.
Seventy of the bodies were those
81 girls and young women, the remain
ing sixteen those of men. There are
IL injured in the hospitals. Scores
Of others more or less seriously hurt
we're taken to their homes
The building was occupied by a
number OF factories, and at least
1,5O0 persons were at work when the
Ere started.
The victims were either burned to
death or were crushed into lifeless
forms on the pavements when they
leaped to escape the swift rush of fire
which quickly enveloped the building
Not since the burning of the excur-
sion steamer General Slocum, of
North Brothers island In 1904, when
1,020 persons persisted, has the city
been so excited by fire horror.
At least fifty of the victims were
killed by leaping from the windows Of
the seventh floor, and floors above.
Many persisted in the flames on up
per floors, remaining, afraid to leap
until the fire surrounded them.
Although the fire started on the
eighth floor, 1t spread eventually to
the basement and Quilted the whole
building. The blaze started in the
cutting room OF the Triangle Waist
company. on the eighth floor This
concern occupied the upper three
floors Of the building.
Joseph Devontry, a Brooklyn auto
mobile dealer. who was passing the
building when the fire started, says
that it was IL minutes after the alarm
was turned in before there was a
stream Of water on the blaze
BY that time there were 30 dead on
the sidewalks. The scene was sick
ening With wild shrieks the girls
leaped from the windows, and, above
the din and roar Of the flames, their
bodies struck the street and sounded
like claps of thunder.
The extension ladders of the fire
men reached only to the seventh floor.
The flremen were unable to get above
that with scaling ladders because Of
the intense heat and the dense smoke
pouring from the upper windows.
Unable to reach the upper floors,
the hfeme8 resorted to the use Of life
nets In most instances the nets
proved to be worthless Some OF
them broke under the pressure of
single body. Others were torn by
two or more persons alighting in
them at the same time One net was
lying in the street after the fire with
six bodies tangled In IT,
Grocery wagons and even pushcarts
were pressed into service to get the
wounded people. most of whom we're
young girls, to drug stores and hos
pitfalls. Stores In the neighborhood
we're turned into temporary morgues
A great crowd gathered around the
scene of the fire Factories in the
neighborhood we're soon emptied of
their employees.
Some of the revelations brought out
by Fire Marshal Beers In his public
inquiry into the causes of the fire
show that thespoor girls in that panic
rush 10 escape from the flames found
traps ut every turn
II seemed that the very arrange
ment of the workroom was trap.
with 700 women. jammed back to
back at their machines. When the
panic started, the narrow aisles be-
came blocked with chairs and the
girls were In confusion before they
even started for the doors. Then
there was a scarcity of exits, the
inward opening doors and the death
trap Are escapes"
'The Are, without any question.
started from a cigarette or a match
thrown into pile OF lawn clippings
light cotton stun, said Marshal Beers.
There was no gasoline about the
| place, so far as could learn and the
machinery power was furnished by
| electric motors But can prove that
/ cigarette smoking was no uncommon
practice among the men employed In
| the factory
The fire started at 4:40 o'clock
Samuel Bernstein. the superintendent
! Tor the Triangle company and n boy
| tried to put 1t out with buckets of
water, but fought 1t for only minute
| and a half The alarm was not
turned In for Ave minutes
while Bernstein was fighting the
nre. Edward Brown. the machiuist.
was trying to get the girls in line to
march TO the fire escape and to the
+ elevator doors. But the poor things.
/ in most cases. understood only Yid-
/ dish and did not know what he was
saying 10 them"