The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1911-03-30
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ing the stills.
There Were No Ftre Escapes.
Don't jump. don't Jump" yelle
the crowd. but the girls had no q,
tentative. The pressure Of madden
ed hundreds behind them and tn
urging Of their own fears were to
strong. They began to fall to til
sidewalk in q terrible rain of fes
and blood. Four alarms were run
within Is minutes before the en-
gines could respond. Before net
could be stretched or ladders raised
five girls had fallen from the eight
. and ninth floors So heavily that the
broke through the glass and iro,
roofs of the sub-cellars and crashe,
through the very streets into tn
vaults below. In an hour the fir,
; was out. In half an hour 1t had don,
its work. Probably the death lis
was full in twenty minutes.
Flee Over Roofs.
| The building stands on corner
with exposure on Two sides, but tn,
only fire escape was an interior open
ing on the light AID air shaft. In al
there were seven exits, a single fire
escape, two freight elevators at th@
rear, two passenger elevators in
front and two stairways.
4 All of them proved almost useless
and practically all who escaped eth.
, er climbed to the roof and scrambl.
ed thence to the roof of the build.
ing occupied by the American Book
company adjoining, or fed in the
first rush for safet ybefore the crush
and smoke grew too thick.
! The building stead tonight with
its she'll intact and barely SCARED,
rather only smudged. Partitions OF
the architectural til,ng between the
+; floor and floor are sound and 1t is
impossible for those who did not see
1t to imagine how flames in 80 short
space could have wrought such
havoc.
Seven hundred hapAs.s6oo Of them
women. were employed by the shirt
waist company. They sat In rows az
their sewing machines, tables before
them piled with flimsy cloth, the
floor Uttered with lint. air itself full
of flying inhammable dust.
The first rush of flame was almost
an explosion. Operators died in
them chairs, their lungs scared by in
haling flames. Others were crowded
into elevator shafts after the cars
had made their last trip. Still 9TH
ers were pushed off into the made
quate interior fire escape.
Bodies Crash to Street.
In such horrible stream did the
bodies overflow from the windows
that fire nets stretched by the first
company to arrive were soon gorged
beyond their capacity. Twelve bod
les weighted one net to the bursting
point, but the bodies kept on tumbl-
ing to the pavement, through meshes
that could no longer support them.
When the first breath of flames
curled over the edge Of the pile OF
shirting on the eighth floor, five min
utes before quitting time. hundreds
were in line before the cashiers win
dow.
In the office building across Wash
ington place, scores of men detain-
ed beyond Office hours worked at
their desks. One of them saw girl
rush to the window and throw up
the sash. Behind her danced seeth-
ing curtain of yellow flame. She
climbed to the sill, stood in black
outline against the light, hesitating
then with last touch Of futile thrift
slipped her chatelaine bag over her
wrist and jumped.
Her body went whirling downward
through the woven wire glass Of the
canopy to tagging below. Her sis
ters who followed famed through the
air like rockets. 1t was IS feet from
the eighth floor to the ground, about
95 feet from the ninth floor, 115 feet
from the cornice of the roof and an
upward rush of draught and crock
le Of flames drowned their cries.
Girl Hangs by Finger Tips-Falls.
Six girls fought their way to the
window on the ninth floor over the
bodies of fallen fellow-workers and
crawled out in single file to the eight
inch stone ledge, running the length
Of the building. More than a hum
dred feet above the sidewalk they
crept along their perilous pathway to
a swinging electric feed wire, span
ming Washington place.
The leaders paused for their COM
panions to catch up at the end of the
ledge and the six grabbed the wire
simultaneously. 1t snapped like a
rotten vhin.cord and fhav rroahoA