The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-03-27
early All Of Victims Of Saturdays
Fire Have Been Claimed by
Heart Broken
Relatives.
escape OF PRoPR1EToRs
blank and Harris With Two Little
Children Saved Their Live. by
Going up on the
Roof.

light, the lines of friends going to
the morgue began to grow again and
by nine o'clock there were more than
1000 people waiting to go inside.
OF the 142 bodies in the morgue
from the Triangle Shirt Waist CO.
FIRE, all but fifteen had been identified
this morning
OF the l50 similar buildings in the
city. not one-third have fire escapes
or standpipes. Criminal prosecution
will likely. follow the fire.
Max Blank, who with Isaac Harris
Is the owner of the Triangle Shirt
Waist Company, stated that there
we're $50 operators employed on the
ninth floor and a nearly hundred on
the tenth. In all, the company had
725 persons at work. Blank said his
two children We're with him in the of
flee on the tenth floor when the fire
broke out. Blank said: "Accompan.
led by their governess my two chill.
dren came to the factory and were
with me in little office enclosure
when chorus of screams sounded
from the streets below. This was the
first warning of the coming disaster.
rushed to the window, looked out
and could see nothing below of an
alarming nature save thin cloud of
smoke rising from the lower windows
Feeling that something serious must
have hanpened to cause the comnse-
ton below, ! started down the rear
stairway to investigate. A wall of
smoke met me and drove me back.
Running at top speed into the little
Office where had left my children
found them perched on a window
looking down to the street. AS l
caught them UP and turned to descend
the back stairs, man staggered up
from the ninth floor CRYING as loud
as choking lungs would permit Fire,
get to the roof, it's our one chance. I"
Ihis man was the only person,
SO iar as my partner or saw, who
CAME up either of the stairways lead
Ing from the lower floor.
Is strange that some in the panic
stricken crowd below did not mount
me stairs. There were two stairs,
one In front and one in the rear, both
Of steel and guarded by iron doors on
each landing. All around me there
was panic. The girls, frantic with
lear, We're shrieking at the top of
lneir voices, while the smoke pouring
up from the lower flowers made the
alr SO thick that we could hardly dis
uhgulsh each others faces. Suddenly
! neard the voice of my partner, Har-
rs crying; Come this way Let's
make for the roof
There was wide stairway say
vice. meaning wide enough to serve
..nree persons walking abreast-lead-
ing from the tenth floor to the roof.
! carried my two children up this
stairway At my heels rushed the
panic stricken crowd of girls and men
here must have been some cool
neaos among the crowd for in a short
'ime-a fraction of moment, it
SEEMED to me-the crowd of shrek
ls women were rushing pell nell up
'he stairway to the roof Once on the
'ool, our predicament seemed almost
as desperate as it had been below.
AooVe us lowered ten feet high the
lool OF the big factory building which
itohts on Greene street and Waverly
pace In the other direction. sur
,ouhded by chasm of twelve feet at
,east, was the roof of the American
BOOK Co., which fronts on Wooster
a'feet. How to reach these points
was the question. Mad panic reigned
among the women and the end seem
"a 70 he right at hand when / heard
,he voice of my partner yelling, come
oe quick; pass the women up one at
time
Harris, fire scorched, was fast
Neeakening under the terrible strain,
When help came from an unexpected
Over on the roof of the
|, Book Co., we could see
the heavy smoke the shadow
'u'ilne OF figures hard at work.
ihey threw us a ladder and in a
ew minutes more than hundred of
% mad crossed to safety
buf for the stairway leading to the
ooi' our plight would have been
'ope'ess, We have just learned that
~ cousin, Jacob Blank, who was en-
'ioyed by us an operator, is among