The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-03-26
THE SALT TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH &C.

jority OF them all. A single fire escape,
single stairway, one passenger elevator
and one freight elevator offered the only
means OF escape from the building.
loft building under the specifications OF
the law, no other ways OF egress were
required. and TO this fact. which also
factory the dreadful toll may be traced
Property Damage Small.
The property damage resulting from
the fire did not exceed S100, ,0O0. Part of
this was in tho building of the New York
university. the next structure but one;
Two floors Of IL were swept clean by
the flames. which !caped the lower build
ing between.
TO accommodate the unprecedented
number OF bodies. the Charities pier nj
the foot OF East Twenty y-sixth street was
opened for tho first time since the Slo-
cum disaster. with which this VIII rank.
for no fire In n building ever claimed so
many lives before
Fire Chief Croker was convinced, after
n personal Investigation OF the premises.
that the total would probably not eK-
IT was the most appalling horror since
the Slocum steamer disaster and the lro-
puois thoatcr fire In Chicago years ago.
Every available ambulance in Manhattan
was called upon to cart the dead 10 the
morgue-bodics chnrrcd To unrccoGniza- =
BILE blackness or reddencd TO sickIy
limbs protrudne through flame -eaten
clothing. Men and women. boys and girls
were OF tho dead that Uttered the streets. .
that Is actually the condition-the streets
were Uttered with tho dead.
The fire began In the eighth story. The
flames licked It's way up through 10 the
other two stories. The estimate OF the
number OF employees at work IL made by
Chief Croker at about 1000 The pro-
prletors Of the company say 700 men and
girls were in their place.
Many Died Instantly.
Whatever the number. they had no
chance of escape. Before smoke or flame
gave signs from the windows the loss OF
life was fully under way. Within the
three flaming floors II was rrlehtful.
There flames cnveloped many so that they
died instantly. When Fire Chief Croker
could make his way into these three
| floors he found sights that utterly stag
Sered him-that sent him, n man used
! TO horrors-back and down into the street
| with quivcriug lips.
Tho floors were black with smoke And
| then he saw. as tho smoke drfted away.
| bodies burned to the bare bones. There
were skeletons bending over sewing ma
chimes
Nor were burned without a
chance to save themsclvos-the full ex-
! preston Of the awful thing that had oC-
CURED. When the namcs had shot their
way into the elevator shaft so that the
! brave Young men in charge OF the cars
| no longer dared TO go up for fear the
| neat would snap the cables. men and
| boys by the dozen. utterly Crazed. throw
| themselves into this shaft. There was
| no reason in IL. They were sure 10 per
| lsh. But il was the only place OF escape
| from the red he'll behind. 1t was the
| only place where they could breathe
| Madly they flung themselves down tho
| shaft. IL offered Just another breath o
lie Police and liremen turned away sich
at the sight Of these elevator shafts
| piled six stories with tho uutlluns. dis
| tortcd bodies OF the dead
! Those who got To tn" roof got life
| Young men OF the New York University
Commercial Law school studious voune
fellows. who had chosen TO spend theil
Saturday afternoon in study. answered