The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-03-29
DIED IN TRAP
Many Persons Are Crushed and Burned
ma New York Factory
DEATH TOLL is HEAVY
They Are Caught Without Means of
Escape, Many Jump from Ninth
and Tenth Stories - Lives Are
Crushed Out on Pavement Before
Horrifed Spectators.
Horrifed Spectators.


One hundred and forty-eight per
sons-nine-tenths Of them girls from
the East Side-were crushed to death
on the pavements. smothered by
smoke or shrivelled crisp Saturday
afternoon in the worst fire New York
has known since the steamer General
Slocum was burned off North Broth
ers Island, in 1904.
Nearly all, if 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
downtown wholesale clothing, fur
and millinery district.
The partners of the firm, Isaac
Harris and Mac Blanck, escaped from
the Office on the tenth floor, carrying
with them over an adjoining roof
Blanck's two young daughters and
governess. There was not an outside
fire escape on the building.
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, fifty bod
les were found, sixty-three or more
We're crushed to death by jumping,
and more than thirty clogged the ele-
vator shafts. The loss to property
will not exceed 100000.
Pedestrians going home, through
Washington Place to Washington
Square. at ten minues to five, were
scattered by the whiz OF something
rushing through the air before them;
there was terrible thud on the
pavement and body lattened on the
flags. Wayfarers on the opposite side
Of the street shaded their eyes
against the setting sun and saw the
windows OF the three upper floors Of
the building black with girls crowd
ing to the silIs. There were no fire
escapes.
NO CtIler :1lteEIialiSc.
Don't jump; don't jump yelled
the crowd, but the girls had 40 alter
native. The pressure of the mad
dened hundreds behind them and the
urging Of their own fears were too
strong. They began to fall to the
sidewalk, in terrible rain of flesh
and blood
Four alarms were rung within Is
minutes. Before the engines coulo
respond. before the nets could be
stretched or the ladders raised, five
girls had fallen from the eighth ana
ninth floors so heavily that they
broke through the glass and iron
roofs of the sub-cellars and crashed
through the very streets into the
vaults below. II an hour the fire
was OUT: in half an hour it had done
its worst. Probably the death list
was full in 30 minutes.
The building stands on corner.
with exposure on two sides,~hut the
only fire escape was in the rear, or:"
ening into a light and air shaft In
all, there were seven eX;ts--the sin
gle fire escape. two freight elevators,
at the rear: two passenger elevators
in front, and jwo stairwavs All Of
them proved almost useless and Drac-
tically all who escaped either
climbed TO the roof and scrambled
thence to the roof Of the building oc-
cupied by the American Book Com
pany, or fed in the first rush for
safety before the crush and the
smoke grew TOO thick.
The buildings stand tonight with
shell intact and barely scarred-rath-
CT only smudged. The tiling between
the floors are sound. and it is i'm
possible for one, who did not see IL
10 imagine how the flames in so short
a time could have caused such havoc
Seven hundred persons were en-
ploved by the shirt waist company.
They sat IL rows at their whirring
machines. the tables before them
piled with GiGnsy cloth, the floor lit
tered with lint. the air itself full Of
flying infamma5le dust.
Died in Their Seats.
The first rush OF fame was almost
an explosion. Operators died in their
chairs, their lungs scared BY inhal.ng