The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1911-03-29
And $50 Working Girls
Burned to Death.
GROSS CARELESSNESS CAUSE
Most Frightful Holocaust of
Recent Years-An lnyeS-
tigation Started.
A RAIN OF FLESH AND BLOOD


negligence cost the estimated lives
of $50 wage earners, mostly women,
who were trapped on the top floors
of ten-story factory here late this
evening. There were 500 In the
building, and they had to choose be-
tween burning and leaping.
Three jumped and escaped; others
were crushed.
Some escaped after they reached
the stairways and elevators. The
firemen and spectators were unable
to aid.
Because the building was in the
"'high pressure district" and had ex-
terror walls of stone, 1t had but one
fire escape. That was an Inside
exit" reaching to the seventh floor.
The three upper floors were oc-
cupied by the Triangle Waist COM
many. manufacturers of women's
shirtwaists, and employing $50 per-
sons.
Fire Chief Croker places the re-
sponsibility on the city building de-
partment.
Shortly after 4:3O p. m. the stu
dents of the professional school OF
tho New York University were start
led by a crash of glass.
Immediately the first body fell, a
voune girl. apparently IT. Ten
more followed
Windows were filed with shrek
ing men and women.
Smoke and fire were pouring from
the eighth floor, and nearly all on
that floor jumped.
Usually the clothing was burned
from their bodies before they struck
the street. The first company that
arrived had nets spread, and the
chief ordered the women to jump
one at a time, but mad with fear
three Jumped simultaneously, which
tore the net, rendering it useless.
Extension ladders reached the
sixth floor, and fremen scaling the
ladders were driven back by the hre.
Scores of engines and thousands
of spectators poured into Washing
ton square. Women tainted and
shrieked, and men wept and prayed
as the bodies struck the street.
From one side 10 jumped stimuli
taneously, and IA were instantly
killed. The 18th girl, aged II, was
taken from the pile an hour after,
alive. but badly hurt. The nets were
useless, and the bodies crushed
through.
One woman's dress caught on an
awning stanchion, and her body
hung in the air, living torch, until
her clothing was burned away and
she fell to the ground.
Two elevators, run by Joseph Tito
and John Gregory, made a number
of trips to the upper floors through
the smoke. The flames finally crowd
ed Gregory's elevator to the bottom
of the shaft, and compelled him to
desert It. AS he left, six bodies
struck his car. Tito made one more
trip and got 20. The abandoned
ones slid down the cable till their
hands we're burned, so they had to
let go.
When there was no chance to save
more lives, the firemen attacked the
flames, and in two hours had them
under control.
The bodies in the streets were COW
cred with a tarpaulin. The injured
were rushed to hospitals. The cause
of the fire is doubtful. 1t is believ-
ed to have started from the explos-
ion of a gasoline engine in the Tri-
angle plant, based on the statements
of the elevator men. that they heard |
an explosion. Harris and Blank,
partners in the firm, deny this, and
say It was caused by spark from a
heated pulley.
Relatives Of the dead and injured
rushed to the scene, crying and pray
ing, and tried to break through the
lines. Realizing that they must be
cruel to be kind. the police forced
them back. Many tainted.
When the fire was under control
the building was searched. In the
bottom OF the ''inside escape" were