The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-03-28
FEARFUL HOLOCAUST
IN new YORK CITY
GIRLS CRUSHED AND BURNED IN
GREAT FIRE.
Shirt Waist Factory Scene of City'S
Greatest Disaster Since Burning
of Steamer Slocum.

and forty-eight persons-nine-tenths
of them girls from the East Side
were crushed to death on the pave
ments, smothered by smoke or shrivel-
3ed crisp this afternoon in the worst
fire New York has known since the
steamer General Slocum was burned
off North Brothers Island, in 1904.
One hundred and forty-one bodies
haG been removed from the ruins at
midnight, and seven of the forty in
jured had died in hospitals. This it is
believed completes the list OF dead.
Grief-stricken relatives besieged the
morgues as the bodies were laid out.
Nearly all, if not all, of the VIC
TINS were employed by the Triangle
Waist company, on the eighth, ninth
and tenth floors Of a ten-story loft
building, at No. % Washington Place,
On the western fringe of the down
town wholesale clothing, fur and mil
linery district.
The partners Of the firm, Isaac Har-
ris and Mac Blanck, escaped from the
Office on the tenth floor, carrying
with them over an adjoining roof
BIanck's two young daughters and a
governess. There was not an outside
tho h11i1
Fires Origin Unknown.
How the fire started viii 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; siNty-three or more
were crushed to death by jumping,
and more than thirty ciSgged the ele-
vator shafts. The loss to property
will not exceed 100000.
Pedestrians going nome, through
washington Place to Washington
Square, at 10 minutes to 5, were scat
tered by the whiz of something rush
ing through +he air before them;
there was a horrible thud on the pave
ment and a body fattened 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 build
ing black with girls crowding to the
sills. There were no fire escapes.
No Other Alternative.
Don't jump; don't jump!" yelled
the crowd, but the girls had no alter
native. The pressure of the madden
ed hundreds behind them and the urg-
ing of their own fears were 200 strong.
They began to fall to the sidewalk,
In a terrible rain of flesh and blood.
Four alarms were rung within Is
minutes. Before the engines could re-
spond, before the nets could be stretch
ed or the ladders raised, five girls had
fallen from the eighth ant ninth floors
so heavily that they broke through the
glass and iron roofs of the sub-cel-
lars and crashed through the very
streets into the vaults below. In an
hour the fire was out; in half an hour
it had done it's wors-. Probably the
death list was full in 20 minutes.
Extra Useless.
The building stands on a corner,
with exposure on two sides, but the
only fire escape was in the rear, OPP
ening into a light and air shart. In
all, there were seven exits-the single
fire escape, two freight elevators, at
the rear; two passenger elevators, in
front, and two stairways. All of them
proved almost useless and practically
all who escaped either climbed to the
roof and scrambled thence to the roof
of the building occupied by the Ameri-
can Book company, or fed in the first
she smoke grew too thick.
The buildings stand tonight with
shell intact and barely scarred-rath-
er only smudged.
The tiling between the floors arc
sound, and it is impossible for one,
who did not see it, to imagine how the
flames in so short time could have
caused such havoc.
Seven hundred persons were EN-
plorad by the shirt waist company.
They sat in rows at their whirrirG
machines, the tables before them pill
cd with Aimsy cloth, the floor Uttered
with lint, the air itself full of flying
7nfam1nable dust.
Died in their Seats.
The first rush of fame was aim :st
an explosion. Operators died III their
chairs, their lungs scared by inhal-
iro flame Others were crowded into