The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1911-03-30
FOCUS ENERGIES
TO FIX FIRE BLAME
Authorities Find Appalling Condl-
ditions in Disaster Probe.
DEATH LIST Is NOW 142
Relief Fund Headed by Andrew Car
negie Is Started - Thirty-Three
Bodies Unidentlfied-Sone
OF Injured May Die.

] the Diane TOT the loss Oh IfG lives III
! the Washington square fire of Satur-
| day drew to a focus the energies OF
| the district attorneys staff, the fire
marshal, the coroner the state labor
| department and Borough President
| McAneny of Manhattan.
| Dozens Of investigators collected
/ every scrap of available information.
! Grand jury men turned personal prob
| ers, and an additional grand jury In a
| formal resolution presented to the
! court of general sessions, offered their
| aid TO the district attorney and de-
! clared that some one should be prose
| cuted for the disaster.
! What Probers Found
What the probers found-evidence
| that doors at exits swung Inward, the
! crumpled fire escape in the airshaft,
| the one fire escape blocked by iron
! shutters when opened, an empty wa
| ter tank on the roof and the practice
| prevalent among cutters OF lighting
! cigarettes few minutes before quit
! ting time-al this, and what is yet TO
! be ferreted out, will be placed speed
! lily before the grand jury for action,
| District Attorney Whitman announced.
| The tenement house department
| summoned owners of half dozen
| faulty structures to police court as
| preliminary step to farreaching In
! vestigatiOn of tenements. One man
was held for violating the law, and
of "
! pressed Fire Marshal Beers sum-
moned the proprietors of the Triangle
| Waist company and several employees
! to testify at a public investigation,
largely to inquire into the truth OF re-
ports that doors leading to fire exits
were blocked
Fire Drill Unknown.
so far as | can discover" he said,
/ there has never been a fire drill III
this factory In my opinion, 1t would
/ take 1000 girls three hours to reach
the street by the one fire escape in
/ that building Nine-tenths OF the EN-
| ployes cannot speak English. yet |
could not find sign In Yiddish or
! Italian pointing out the fire exits"
A relief fund for the sufferers Is
headed by a $4,000 donation from An
drew Carnegie The United Hebrew
! Charities. the Austrian Hebrew Free
! Burial association and other organiza-
tons came to the fore with aid.
Thirty-three bodies. most OF them
shorn of all semblance to human form,
lie unidentified at the Charities Pier
morgue. Twelve persons, most OF
them girls In their teens. are fighting
! for life in hospitals. Half a hundred
| funeral trains trailed through the East
Side and the Italian district near the
| factory. The unidentified will De
4 buried in single grave, but will be
held as long as possible to give rela-
tives and friends an opportunity 20
/ claim them.
Death Roll Is f42.
Final figures place the death list at
142. OF these 1873 bodies We're taken
from the scene of the disaster anG
nine died I'm hospitals. The list Will
be swelled, surgeons say, by others
who, still living, have no chance to
recover.
With the tragic scenes of Saturday
nights fire fresh in their minds, l2o
girls employed by the clothing firm
of Manson 4 Jacobson in a l2-story
loft building at 80 to &c West Eigh-
teenth street were thrown into II
panic by the cry of fire and many IN
jured In the Wild rush, which soCE
extended to employees on two other
floors of the building.
Before the alarm of fire was found
to be false one two girls had been
severely tramped by the fleeing
crowds Scores of other girls wera
bruised and cut by broken glass end
their clothing torn in the rush.