Iron County register., 1911-03-30

NEW 1UTh.-OQe 0uIUGeu ana IOrly-
one persons, 194 of them girls from
the East Side, is the death toll in the
fire in the ten-story loft building of
the Trinagle Shirt Waist company
and welleG the heart of New York
as never since the memorable hole-
caust aboard the ferry General Slo-
cum. which was burned TO the wa
ter's edge off North Brothers island,
in 1904
The blaze, the origin of which never
may be known, started in a corner of
the eighth floor Twenty minutes later
the death list was complete. An hour
had but elapsed until the last spark
was quenche, with property loss of
not to exceed $780, ,000-but at a toll
of human life of nearly eight min
ute.
Volley after volley of human pro-
jectiles shot earthward from the
tenth, ninth and eighth floors, while
firemen, responding by the dozens
every minute, stretched their life nets
and even snatched the blankets off
their horses in the effort to gather
the rain of animate bodies. Their eff
forts were futile, however, for the
momentum from a height of S5 to 95
feet broke the glass sidewalk cover
ings and piled bodies in grewsome
masses in the sub-basements.
Women Are Panic-Stricken.
Nearly 1000 persons were en-
ployed by the Triangle Shirt Waist
company; about 800 were on the
three floors when the fire was discov-
cred. They hurled themselves to
death from the windows when the
elevators were stopped and the doors
leading to the stairways were blocked
by the insane rush of the panic-strick-
en- women
The women made desperate efforts
to reach the imperilled men and wo-
men, but their extension ladders
would reach only to the seventh floor.
There was left to the girls, then, only
the horrible alternative of jumping
and trusting to finding a life net
stretched below.
In all, there We're seven exits-the
single fire escape, two freight ele-
vators at the rear. two passenger ele.
vators in front and two stairways, All
of them proved almost useless, and
virtually 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 adjoining, or fed in the first
rush for safety before the crush and
smoke grew too thicks.
100000 View Victims.
From the ten-story loft building
which served as a stage for the az
| palling tragedy, the scene shifted te
the improvised morgue on the chari
ties dock at the foot of East Twenty
sixth street, where the bodies of the
victims law awaiting identification.
1t is estimated that more than 200,
coo persons filed by the long line O.
rough red boxes which held all thai
remained of the battered bodies.
One hundred and forty-one persons
are dead as the result Of the fire.
More than three-quarters of thii
number are women and girls, VIII,
were employed in the shirt waist fac
tory where the fire started.
Eighty-three victims have beef
identified. Fifty-eight bodies remail
to be identified, but they are so badl.
burned as to preclude the possibilit.
of recognition.
Twenty-four persons who were in
jured in the disaster are in the cit.
hospital. It is expected that severa
of them will die.
One hundred and fifty, perhaps, will
conservatively cover the casualties
when several shall have joined thei
fellow workers now in pine coffin
at the morgue
The police and firemen believe tha
all the bodies have been taken from
the building. Three bodies, those 0
young girls, were taken out of tn
subcellar during the day.
Bodies Crash Through Walks.
1t is believed that the girls who's
bodies were recovered were amon
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