The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1911-03-30
Ho[lCAUST N
NEW YORK CITY
COSTS l5| LIVES
PANIC OCCURS WHEN FLAMES
BREAK oUT-NETs AND
BLANKETS FAIL TO
BREAK FALLS.
BODIES ARE LITERALLY
RAINED THROUGH THE AIR
Three Upper Floors Of Ten-story
Building Are Rurned.-casuaIties
Occur Within 20 Minutes
Fire Out in One

and fifty-one persons-nine-tenths of
them girls from the East side-were
crushed to death on the pavements.
smothered in smoke. or shriveled crisp
In . factory fire and twelve are dying
IN hospitals in the worst disaster New
York has known stnce the steamship
Gen. 6looun WAS burned to the waters
edge OF North Brothers island In 1904.
Nearly all. If not all. of the victims
were employed BY the Triangle Waist
company on the eighth. ninth and tenth
floors Of 10-story loft building, on the
western fringe Of the downtown whole-
sale clothing. fur and millinery dis
trict.
The partners Of the firm. Isaac Har-
ris and Max Blanck. escaped un-
scratched from the Office on the tenth
floor, carrying with them over an ad-
Joining roof Blanck's two young daugh-
tors and q governess. There was no
near outside fire escape on the build
ing.
Origin Unknown.
How the fire started will perhaps
never be known. A corner on the
eighth floor was it's point of origin and
the three upper floors only were swept
On the ninth floor so bodies were
found. 90 or more persons were crush
cd to death by jumping and more than
80 clogged the elevator shafts. The
loss to property will not exceed $780,
900.
Pedestrians going home through
Washington place to Washington
square at 10 minutes to were scat
tered by the whizz of something rush
ing through the air before them; there
was horrible plop on the pavement
and q body hattened on the flags.
-Four alarms were rung within Is
minutes. Before the engines could re-
spond, before the nets could be
stretched or the ladders raised, five
girls had fallen from the eighth and
ninth heors so heavily that they broke
through the glass and iron roofs Of
the sub-oellars and crashed through
the very streets into the vaults be-
low.
Holocaust Soon Over.
In an hour the fire was out; In half
IN hour 1t had done it's worst; prob
ably the death list was full in 20 min
utes.
The building stands on corner, with
exposure on two sides, but the only
IRE escape WAS interior, opening on a
hight and air shaft. In all there were
seven exits-the single fire escape, two
freight elevators at the rear, two pas
ssnger elevators in front and two
stairways. All of them proved al.
most useless and practically all who
escaped either climbed to the roof and
scrambled thence to the roof of the
building occupied by the American
Book company adjoining, or fed in the
first rush for safety before the crush
and the smoke grew too thick
The first rush Of flame was almost
an explosion. Operators died in their
chairs, their lungs scared by inhalins
flames. Others were crowded into the
elevator shafts after the cars had
made their last trip. Still others were
pushed of in the inadequate interior
IRE escape.
Shower Of Bedios.
In such horrible stream did the
bodies overflow from the windows that
the hrs nets, stretched by the hrst
company to arrive, were soon gorged
beyond capacity.
From Deadly Heights.
It was IS feet from the eighth moo,
20 the ground; about IS feet from the
ninth floor. 116 feet from the cornice
Of the roof. and the upward rush ot
the draught and the erackle Of the
flames drowned their cries.
Six girls fought their way to /,
window on the ninth floor over the
bodies Of fallen fellow workers anG
crawled out in siAgle file to an eight
inch stone ledge, running the Length
of the building More than hundred
feet above the sidewalk they crep
along their perilous pathway to {
swinging electric feed wire spannins
Washington Place. The leaders pauset
1qr their compan.ons to catch up q