The Wilson times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1896-19??, 1911-03-28
100 GIRLS
DIE At FIRE
SHIRTWAIST FACTORY In new
YORK SCENE OF TERRIBLE
DISASTER
MANY die In SEATS

New York, March 27.-District At
torney Whitman announced today
that he would demand from the New
York county grand jury an indictment
charging manslaughter and criminal
negligence as a result of the holacust
in the Triangle Waist factory:> The
evidence has been presented to At
torney Whitman that the doors were
locked, this preventing many of the
victims from escaping. Negligence
is also charged to- the Bureau of
Buildings, and Rudolph T. Miller, SUI
perintendent, will be called upon to
explain the lack Of protection for the
workers.
There was only one fire escape and
lit was in au out of the way place anG
in. an air shaft itself, a death trap
and in bad condition.
One hundred and forty-five bodies
had been recovered up to seven
O'Clock this morning and search was
still going on Of those recovered,
ninety had been identified. Probably
two score will never be identified,
many bodies being charred beyond
recognition. Of the ninety bodies
idet1tiffstii, only sixteen were men.
Despite the rain storm, thousand
had gathered at the morgue at eight
o'clock this>morning searching for the
bodies Of relatives.
New York, March 27-One hundred
and fifty souls-nine-tenths Of ther
girls from the East Side-were
crushed to death on the pavements,
smothered by smoke, or shriveled
Grips Saturday afternoon in the worst
fire New York has known since the
steamship General Slocum was burn,
ed to the waters edge off North
Brothers Island in 1904.
Nearly all, if not all, of the vic
tins were employed by the Triangle
Shirtwaist Company on the eighth,
ninth and tenth floors of a ten-story
loft building at 23 Washington Place,
on the western fringe of the down
town wholesale clothing, fur and mil
linery district. The partners of the
firm, Isaac Harris and Max B1anck
escaped unscathed from the Office on
the tenth floor carrying with them
over an adjoining roof Blancks two
young daughters and a governess
There was not an outside fire escape
| op the building.
Origin Is Not Known.
How the fire started will perhaps
never be known. A corner on the
eighth floor was its point of origin
and the three upper floors only were
swept. On the ninth floor SO bodies
were found; 63 or more persons werf
| crushed to death by jumping and
more than 80 c1ogged the elevator
shafts The loss to property will moi
exceed 100000.
/ Four alarms were rung within 1:
| minutes. Before tho engines coult
/ respond, before the nets could bt
/ stretched or the ladders raised, five
girls had fallen from the eigth and
ninth floors so heavily that they
broke through the glass and iro1
roofs of the subcellars ant
crashed through the ve-y streets int
the vaults below. In an hour th'
fire was out; in half an hour it hat
done its worst; probably the deatt
list was full in 20 minutes
Seven hundred hands, 500 of then
women, were employed by the shirt
waist company. They sat II
their whirring machines, the tables
before them piled with flimsy cloth
the floors Uttered with liTt, the al
itself full of flying, inf1ammable duet
The first rush of flame was a1nnos
an explosion. Operations died in thei
chairs, their lungs scared by inhalins
s flame. Others crowded into the e1e
ys.ser shafts, after The ca,s had mad