The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-03-28
EYEWITNESS TELLS OF AWFUL
SCENES IN N. Y. FIRE
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I looked up. Another girl was
climbing onto the window sill. Others
: were crowding behind her. She drop
ped, | watched her fall, and again
the dreadful sound. Two windows
away, two girls were climbing onto
the sill; they were lighting each other
and crowding for air. Behind them
! saw many screaming heads. They
fell, almost together, but heard two
distinct thuds.
Then the flames burst out through
the windows ON the floor below them,
and cnrled up into their faces.
The firemen began TO raise lad
der. Others took out life net, and,
while they We're rushing TO the side
walk with 1t, two more girls shot
down. The fremen held II under
them: the bodies broke IL; the gro
tesque smile OF dog jumping
through hoop struck me. Before
they could move the net another girls
body flashed through II.
Scenes Horrlfy Him.
The thuds were just as loud, II
seemed, as II there had been no net
there. II seemed to me that the thuds
were 30 loud that they might have
been heard all over the city.
had counted ten. Then my dulled
senses began to work automatically.
| noticed things that II had not oc.
cured TO me before to notice. Little
details that the first shock had blind
ed me to. looked up TO see whether
those above watched those who fell.
| noticed that they did; they watched
them every inch OF the way down and
probably heard the roaring thuds that
we heard.
AS l looked up I saw love affair
In the midst OF all the horror. A
young man helped a girl to the win
dow sill. Then he held her out, de-
liberately away from the building and
let her drop. He seemed cool and cal
culating. He held out a second girl
in the same way and let her drop.
Then he held out a third girl. They
did not resist. | noticed that. They
were as unresisting as IL he were
helping them onto a street car, in
stead OF into ternity.
) Undoubtedly he saw that a terrible
death awaited them in the flames,
and his was only a terrible chivalry.
Then came the love amid the
flames He brought another girl to
the window. Those of us who were
!. looking saw her put her arms about
: him and kiss him. Then he held her
out into space and dropped her. But
quick as fash he was on the win
dow sill himself. His coat fiuttered
upward-the air filed his trouser legs
could see that he wore tan shoes
. and hose. His hat remained on his
head
Thud-dead: ud-dead-together
they went into eternity. | saw his
face before they covered 1t.
We found out later that, in the
room In which he stood, many girls
were being burned to death by the
flames and were screaming in an in.
ferno of flame and heat He chose
the easiest way and was brave enough
to even help the girl he loved to a
quicker death, after she had given
him a goodbye kiss.
He leaped with an energy as IL TO
arrive first in that mysterious land
Of eternity; only a second OF time
distant to receive her But her thud--
dead. came first.
The fremen raised the longest lad
der. II reached only to the sixth
floor. I saw the last girl Jump at II
and miss Il. And then the faces dis
appeared from the window.
BY now the crowd was enormous.
though all this had occurred in less
than seven minutes, the start OF the
fire and the thuds and deaths.
heard screams around the cor
ner and hurried there.
What I had seen before was not
so terrible as what had followed. UP
on the eighth floor girls were burn
ing to death before our very eyes.
They were jammed In the windows.
No one was lucky enough to be able
to lump II seemed. But, one by one,
the Jams broke. Down came the
bodies in shower. burning, smoking,
flaming bodies, with dishevelled, hair
trailing upward. They had fought each
other to die by jumping instead of by
fire.
Broken Bodies In Heaps.
The whole, sound, unframed girls
who had jumped on the other side OF
the building had tried TO fall feet
down. But these fire torches, suffer
ing ones, fell inert, only intent that
death should come to them on the
|. sidewalk instead OF in the fiery fur
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The floods of water from the fire.
mems hose that ran into the gutter
we're actually stained red with blood.
= On the sidewalk lay heaps OF brok-
en- bodies. A policeman later went
about with tags, which he fastened
with wires to the wrists Of the dead
girls, numbering each with lead
pencil, and saw him fasten tag No.
"a to the wrist of a girl who wore
an engagement ring.
A fireman who came downstairs
from the building told me that there
were, at least, so bodies in the big
room on the seventh floor.
Another fireman told me that more
girls had jumped down an airshaft
in the rear of the building. went
back there, into the narrow court
and saw q heap of dead girls.
And there / saw the first fire es
cape I had seen. 1t was narrow. The
a firemen told me that many girls had
gone down II and that others had fal
: len from 1t In the rush. But on the
two fronts Of the building there was
no fire escapes.
The only way down was the thud
death way.
These girls we're all shirtwaist max
- era As I looked at the heaps Of dead
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