The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-26
Victims, Mostly Girls, Hurl Their Own Bodies to
 Destruction
RAIN OF BODIES IS
 A HORRIBLE SCENE
Panic Stricken Girls Crowd to Win dows on Eighth and Ninth Floors and Forced to Jump By
 Mad Throng Behind

New 1Ork, March Zo.-One nuHuiea dHu forty-eight persons-nine-tenths of them girls from the East Side-were crushed to death on the pavements smothered in smoke or shriveled crisp in a factory Ire this afternoon in the worst disaster New York has known since the steam ship General Slocum was burned to the waters edge, off North Brothers Island in 1904.
 One hundred and forty-one bodies had been removed from the ruins at midnight and seven of the forty injured had died in hospitals. This, it is believed, com petes the list of dead. most of whom are unidentified. Grief-crazed relatives besieged the morgue as the bodies were laid out.
 Nearly all, if not all. of the victims were employed by the Triangle Shirt waist company on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of 10-story building at No. 2s Washington Place. on the western fringe of the downtown wholesale cloth ing, fur and millinery district. The partners of the firm, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, escaped unscathed from the office on the tenth floor. carrying with them over an adjoining roof Blanck- : two young daughters and governess. There was not an outside fire escape on the building.
 Unknown Cause
 How the fire started will perhaps never be known. A corner on the eight floor was its point of origin and the three upper floors only were swept. On the ninth floor 50 bodies were found; 63 or more persons were crushed to death by jumping and more than 30 clogged the elevator shafts.
 The loss to property will not exceed $100,0O0
 Pedestrians going home through Washington Place to Washington square at 4:45 were scattered by the whiz of something rushing through the air be- fore them, there was a horrible ,thud on the pavement and a body fiattened on the flags Wayfarers on the opposite side of the street shaded their eyes against the setting sun and saw the windows of the three upper floors of the building black with girls crowdipg to the sills. There were no fire escapes.
 Bodies Rain Down
 Don't jump, don't jumpl" yelled the crowd, but the girls had no alternative. The pressure of the maddened hundreds behind them and the urging of their own Years were too strong. They began to s'i to the sidewalk in a terrible rain of
 s ard blood.
 9r alarms were run within 15 min ess
 he engines could respond, be- N fsae .ts could be stretched or the N5saaers VssrSF five girls had fallen from tIe sigfkN ands. ninth floors so heavily tha sier liQke Through the very streets into sEz esGN asaow. In an hour the fre VI ons: helf an hour it had done its s f;i F'ro{ ebly the death list was full nsnp1>s. The building stood on a aetfre ti. txposures on two sides, but the an12 Sre estspe was in the interior, openin. oa sshi nd air shaft. In all there wel4 asgatt e*itS. the single fire escape, two eish4 aievafpfs at the the rear, two passe. ger e> ss1f*I n front and two stairways. All ot frs -Oved almost useless, and | arsl IN aH who escaped either climbed he nd scrambled thence to tn racr nf fhe building occupied by the A -4ae 8Qok company adjoining or fled first rush for safety before the cFc sasf the smoke grew too thick.
 Building Still Stand
 Tho building stands toniks 1a.tl shell intact and barely scargsd, fSEiisr only smudged.
 The partitions of te asuzd tilins between floor and for dud and 1t Is impossible for oi4 not see 1t !, to imagine how tte, so short time could have SQoas lch havoc. F Seven hundred pkf kfsedS 6f of them N women, were empli s e shirt waist K company. They ha s at their \ whirring machines eAs takis before them |l piled with 'himsy epi f 'oor filtered Y with lint the air f5ek if flying n- N hammable dust The ltif sh of flame | was almost an ex x.idaiop orators died | in their chairs. tho saf cared by in | haling flame. Otaeis Bers crowded into the elevator shasE alter he cars had made their last lr.r 5li others were pushed of the trace afs interior fire escape. N
 Bodies Flow frsm Windows Tn such a horrioia 7c did the bodies overflow from te u dop 6 that the fire nets, stretched as t . company tc arrive, were .s9eis saFea beyond ca | pacity. Twelve Eol H shted one net to the burstingl eaisl, fut ne bodies kept on, tumbling t tho aye nent, through meshes that to&l0 n1 )nger support them
 When the nrsg e.sa | ef flame curled over the edge iof plle ef shirting on the eighth floor, hYe nilpstsS before quitting time, hundredt ners in ne before the cashiers windpH
 In the office baAdiDss cross Washing ton place scors ei men. detained beyond office hours, roskea ( their desks One of them saw g rush to a window and throw un He sash. Behind hei danced sestfing curtain of yellow flame. She ciirbad tc he sill. stood ir black outline eyfinst tae light hesitat. ing then with 3 last touch of futile thrift, slipped bi.r ehatelAfne bag over hei wrist and iurAfec Yer body went whirl ing downwat aroAsr the woven wire glass of cer1s q le Tagging below Her sistersa,gNa faiipt ed famed through the air lfks 5tets Their path could be followed $, han heard.
 F.ssf B5 is l15 Feet
 It was S5 tS ifb the eighth floor tt the ground q snt s feet from the ninth floor, 115 ffe4 freJ' the corpice of tho roof and tie 5lrirs q rush of the draught and the crartsis the flames drowned their cries
 Six girl. fnsia heir way to win. dow on u naufn sSoor over the bodies of fallen orkers and crawled out in s.axlet en an eight-inct e$oalo led rsasiruS the length of the BFkWiug, ticff stfi 100 feet apove the ;1% &.5hssb& ttsr ~>-
 Q6 sT lzu FROM FACE D