Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-03-27
Those Dying Of Awful In
juries Will Swell List.
Gruesome Scenes in MoTgue
During Identifications.
Rigid Inquiry and Punishment Of
Those Responsible Promised.

down IN history as the fire disaster of
A Washington square entered upon ITS
aftermath tonight with 50 out of nearly
. 10 victims identified. The official death
list has been lessened rather than in
= creased.
y revised count showed 14i dead to-
night with T. women and girls at
deaths door in the hospitals. One nun
dred and fifty, all told. will probably
cover the casualties, when those whose
horrible hurts and burns seem fatal
shall have joined their fellow workers
now in the collins of the pauper dead.
Careful enumeration still makes the
. female victims, young and old, approx
| imately ter to every male. Broadly
| speaking, they were Jews, and 1tal-
| ians, living either on the East Side or
in n small italian quarter near the
scene OF The fire.
With all the dead removed from the
building the coroner began an inves
Itigation of the disaster-one Of sever
al inquiries which will be conducted
by city dcpartments-aid by agents
from the district attorneys Office. An
inquest will be held and its result will
b. placed before the grand jury. Many
grand jury men visited the scene and
| District Attorney Whitman announced
that those responsible for the loss OF
life would be vigorously prosecuted.
| On Thursday night Il mass meeting
viii be held at Cooper Union to aSi-
tate for more adequate protection OF
eo-caled fire proof buildings and tue
United Hebrew Charities and the He
brew Free Burial Societies announced
1niglit that they were ready to re-
licvc any distress caused by the flrc.
The Independent Order Of b Mai Birth.
has opened Il subscription fund
throughout New York, Massachusetts,.
Connecticut. Rhode Island and a por-
ton OF Canada for the sufferers. Di-
rectors of the Metropolitan Opera
house have offered tile building free
for benefit performance.
Or. George NJ. Price chairman Of an
investigation contmittcz' appointed by
the Cloak. Suit and Skirt Industry OF
New York last Septen Der 10 inYcst |
gate and remedy unsaniiarv and pro-
tcctive conditions affecting members of
that union gave out IL statement tonight
vita Il long list of factory buildings
which he says fail to comply with fire
regulations.
What was expected has happened"
says the statement Those who knew
of the fimsy fire protection in the loft
buildings of New York long ago pre-
dicted such a disaster as occurred IN
Washington Place If, however. this
building was the only one of those
unprotected, the situation would not
be so horrible. But that fact is there
is hardly a large loft building in New
York which is better protected against
fire.
I'm a statement which he issued to
the press today. Borough President Nc
Aneny said that 500 firemen, recently
detailed by Fire Commissioner Waldo
for the purpose, reported $500 buildings
lacking adequate fire escapes. The build
ing department has already investi-
gated 700 of these $500 cases and re-
ported that only 10 per cent. of them
were in violation Of the building code,
The building in which Saturdays dis
aster occurred. had not been reached
among the cases reported by the fire
department.
Mr.. McAneny urges an entire revision
of the code. leaving the provisions rela-
tive to fire escapes, TO a commission
of building and fire experts to be APP
pointed by the city
While Il crowd of morbid thousands
was held back by the police. lircmen
with graphing irons and fire hooks
sought Victims in the flooded cellar of
the building all the forenoon. \ steam
pump emptied the basement of water
during the morning and the firemen
believed when they rested at the din
ner hour that they would find no more
dead.
Tonight however. they carried out
another body, making three recovered
during the day. The over count last
night was probably due to checking
off charred portion of body as
corpse.
The work of the day shed no light
upon the cause of the blaze. This
probably will never be known.
The Charities Pier with the dead
and the street surrounding the burned
building We're thronged by thousands
today, some sobbing, some silent and
many munching peanuts. But the I'M
identified dead who probably will lie
in a common grave, attracted the
greatest number of grief tracked per-
sons. 1t is planned by the Waist
Makers Union to have every shirt
waist maker in the city stop work for
few minutes when those charred
forms are buried.
Two hundred thousand persons. the
police estimate, filed in. a serpentine
line to the pier from the, opening Of
the improvised morgue at / o'clock