St. Tammany farmer., 1911-04-01
I5O[NESLOST
NEW YORK FIRE
Graphic Description of the
Scenes Of the Fire.
Men and Women Plunge 100
Feet to Pavement.
Bodies Crush Through Into
Vaults Below.
. Horrible Work: Accomplished
In Twenty Minutes.

In Twenty Minutes.
New York, March 25.-One hun
dred and fifty persons-nine-tenth
OF them girls from the East Side
ments, smothered by smoke Or shriv-
eled crisp, this afternoon in the worst
fire New York has known since the
steamship General Slocum was burn
ed to the waters edge off North
Brothers sland in 1904.
Nearly all, II not all, OF the vic
Tins were employed by the Triangle
Waist Company, on the eighth, ninth
and tenth floors OF ten-story loft
building at No. % Washington Place,
on the western fringe OF the down
town wholesale clothing, fur and
millinery district. The partners OF
the firm, Isaac Harris and Max
Blanck, escaped unscathed from the
ofice on the tenth floor, carrying
with over an adjoining roof Blanck' 8
two young daughters and COVER
ness. There was not an outside fire.
escape on the building.
How the fire started will perhaps
never be known. A corner on the
seventh floor was it's point or origin
and three upper floors were only
swept. On the ninth floor fifty
bodies were found; sixty-three or
more persons were crushed to death
by jumping, and more than thirty
clogged the elevator shafts.
The loss of property will not ex-
ceed 100000.
Pedestrian sgoing home through
washington Place to Washington
SQUARE at ten minutes to were
scattered by the whiz of something
rusing through the air before them;
there was a horrible thub on the
pavement and body fattened on
the flags. Wayfarers on the opposite
side OF tn estreet shaded their eyes
against the setting sun and saw the
windows Of the three upper floors or
the building black with girls crowd
ing to the sills. There were no fire
escapes.
Don't jump! Don't jump" yelled
the crowd, but 8 the girls had no
alternative. The pressure OF the
maddened hundreds behind them and
the4urging Of their own fears were
too strong. They began to fall to
the sidewalk in terrible rain OF
flesh and blood. ~
FELL TO DEATH.
flour alarms were rung within M
s4Sgn minutes. Before the engines
could be stretched or the ladders
raised Eve girls had fallen from the
eighth and ninth floors so heavily
that they broke through the. very
streets into the vaults below In
an hour the fire was out; in half an
hour 1T had done its worst. Probably
the death list was full in twenty
minutes.
The buifding stands on aseorneT
with exposure on two Sides But the
only fire escape was In the interior
Opening on light and air smart: IN
all there were seven ex1ts-the Single
fire escape, two freight elevators at
the rearssswo passenger elevators IN
front and stairways. All OF
them proved almost useless ana pfac-
ticalIy all who escaped either CLIMB
ed to the roof and scrambled thence
TO the roof OF the building occupies
by the American Book Company ad-
Joining. or fled nj the first runsh for
safety before the crush and the
smoke grew too thick.
The building stands tonight with
shell intact and barely Scared
rather only smudged.
The partitions Of architectural TIL
ing between floor andsfoor are sounc
and it is impossible for one VINO ala
not see 1t to imagine how the names
An 90 short a time could have
wrought such havoc. Seven hundred
persons. 500 Of them women, were
employed by the Shirt Waist Com
many. They sat in rows at their
whirring machines, the tables before
them piled with fiimsy cloth, the
noor Uttered with lint. the air 1t
self full of flying infammable dust.
The first rush Of fame was almoss
an explosion. Operators died ln
their chairs, their lung scared ps
;nhaling flames Others were crowd
ad into the elevator shafts after the
cars had made their last trip. Still
others were pushed off in the made
!. ouate interior fire escape.
STREAM OF BODIES.
IN such a horrible stream did The
bodies overflow from the Wnaow'
that the fire nets, stretched py th'
fret company to arrive, We're sooI
eorged beyond capacity TWeiv'
bodies weighted one net to the burst
ing point, but the bodies kept tumbi
ing to the pavement, through meshe
that could no longer support them.
when the first breath OF fam'
curled over the edge of a pile Q
shirting on the eigth floor. flVe min
utes before quitting time hunhleu naahien,
] window. oa,
In the Office buildings, across
Washington Place. scores Of men, dc
tained beyond office hours, worko'
/, at their desks. Qn3sDf them saw
girl rush to win5ow and throw u
the sash. Behind her danced
geething curtain; Of yellow tames
she climbed to the sill stood Il