Evening journal., 1911-03-27
TO FIX BLAME
FOR N. Y. FIRE
District Attorney and Fire
Marshall Offices Conduct
ing a Rigid Investigation
DISTRESSING SCENES AMONG
FRIENDS OF l43 VICTIMS

BY United Press Leased Special Wire.
NEW YORK, March 27.-That any
Of the $50 employees Of the Triangle
Waist Company escaped unscathed
from the fire which on Saturday af-
ternoon destroyed the three upper
floors of the big ten story factory
building at Washington Place and
Greene streets, was declared by vet
eran fremen this afternoon to have
been miraculous.
These men who attended I'm the
Office of Fire Marshal Beers the first
of half n dozen OF official Inquiries
united in saying that the narrow dark
stairways doors which opened inward
and which We're blocked by the fran
tic workers, useless inside" fro
escape, wooden window casing and
tons OF intlammable materials piled IN
the factory all united TO hold the
workers I'm a trap after the fire start
ed
Marshal Beers had before him the
owners of the factory. employees of tho
burned building. inspectors of the
building department firemen and po-
lice who We're first on the scene and
a number Of the persons who man
aged to escape after the fire was dis
covered. He said that he intended
to establish the cause Of the fire and
just who was responsible for the con-
dltions in the building.
While the fire marshal was doing
this, District Attorney Whitman and
Coroner Holzhauser conferred and de-
cided on the plans for their investi-
cations. The District Attorney, his
assistants and the Coroner went to tho
business today, accompanied by archi-
tests and had blue prints drawn show
ing just how every exit was arranged.
how the elevators were placed, the
stairways constructed. and the man.
ner I'm which the exit doors were
hung.
Up to / o'clock this afternoon
there we're still 80 unidentified bodies
= in the morgue most OF which we're
simply charred forms bearing no re-
semhlance to human beings.
, The official police record OF The
= total number of deaths is 143
4 Cigarette Cause Of Fire.
j. That It was the habit of many o
the workers to smoke cigarettes an,
pipes, despite the infammable ma
terial they handled has already beer
established by the fire marshal. The
rule against smoking. while conspicu-
! 0usly displayed. according to Fire
: Marshal Beers was a dead-letter in
the Triangle factory and he says that
the cause of the fire may have been a
lighted match or cigarette carelessly
thrown aside by smoker. It Is un-
likely, however. that the real cause
viii ever be positively known. The
proprietors Of the factory say they
think II came from a heated iammed
pulley. while other survivors say an
explosion took place Just as the fire
broke out.
OF the 143 bodies that had been
taken TO the morgue up to noon yes
terday when It was decided all Of the
d dead had been recovered, all but AZ
b had been identified today All through
the night the old covered Charities
Pier had been besieged by persons
whose loved ones were missing, but
most Of the remaining bodies are 80
terribly charred that Identification
seems impossible A heavy rain that
began to fall soon after dark last
night drove the mere curiosity seekers
away. but those who were honestly
seeking relatives or friends stood in
line, though In many instances wet
to the skin, until they were permitted
TO enter
Bodies in Pine Boxes.
With daylight, the line began to
grow again, and before o'clock there
/ were more than a thousand people
waiting TO get inside. The police and
nurses on duty permitted the people
to enter a few at a time I'm order thai
1cnntinnnd ON snnnnd pnran