The Washington times., 1911-03-27
BLANES LAX LAWS
AND NEGL|GENCES
District Attorney Declares
Guilty Persons Will Be
Punished.
FACTS TO BE PLACED
BEFORE GRAND JURY
Believed That Legislature Will Be
Called on to Change
Laws.
Continued from First Page.)


of the coroner. He intends that the
blame shall be squarely placed and II
criminal negligence is proven, the
persons responsible will be punished.
He today assigned Assistant District
Attorneys Bostwick, Manley. and Ru-
bin to conduct the various sections
Of the inquiry.
He intimated that he is already in
possession of information that indi-
Gated the inspection of the Office and
factory buildings of the city have
been criminally lax. The provisions OF
the law demanding stand-pi2es. three
separate stairways, sprinklers, and
automatic fire alarms. have not been
complied with in more than one-third
of the big buildings in the city.
Automatic Fire Alarm.
Whitman is already convinced that
had there been ar automatic fire
alarm in the building. in which the
Triangle CompanFs plant is located,
fifteen minutes. would have been saw
ed by the firemen in reaching the
scene and that time would have en-
abled them to get up onto the upper
floors and many of those who later
lost their lives could have found their
way to safety by means of the roof and
adjoining structures.
Whitman said that Fire Commits
sioner Waldo and Chief croker had
cited to him many instances OF where
the city building department had
hampered the work OF the fire depart
ment and he said that he was in fa-
vor of asking the Legislature to give
the freedepartment the same control
over factory and Office buildings that
is now hold over theaters.
Criminal Negligence.
Whitmans inspection of the building
has shown criminal negligence on
somebody's part The zig doors lead
ing to the stairways were REINFORCED
with iron and opened inward SO that
those who tried to open them were
penned against them. Chief Croker and
Deputy Chief Binns reported to the dis
trict attorney that they found charred
bodies piled in front of the doors on
the ninth floor showing that dozens Of
girls had rushed straight for the doors,
but the first COmeTS failed to get the
doors back, and Immediately the pres
sure from behind made IL an impossible
Ity to get the exits open.
The law specifically states that such
doors shall open outwardly wherever
Dra aCtica ble,' and the fire department
officials unite in saying that these doors
could as easily have been arranged TO
open that way as inwardly.
Must Be Unlocked.
The law also says that factory doors
and exits must be left unlocked during
working hours, but the survivors of the
horror unite in asserting that 1t was the
rule Of the proprietors of the Triangle
factory to have all of the doors securely
locked AS an excuse they say this
was necessary as employees would report
for work and then leave without letting
any one know, only returning TO report
off duty.
The single inside" fre-escape in
the building has been photographed
for use in the grand jury investiga-
ton 1t is so narrow that only one
person could descend at a time and
of the kind characterized by the fire
men as utterly useless. The so-Called
fireproof buildings. in which category
the Asch building was, are required
to install fire-escapes in the "discre-
tion" of the city building department.
The officials never compelled the
installation of any on this structure.
The district attorney and his as