Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-23
Four Story Building of Binghamton Clothing Company
 Suddenly Becomes Roaring Furnace
QUIckNEss OF FLAMES PREVENTED ESCAPES
Fire Dr Fire Escapes, Life Nets Ladders of Little Use Under the Existing Conditions Unable to Get Near Burning Buldng-Of6cial of the Concern, Attri butes the Blaze to an Employees Cigarette
and it was among these that the loss nf 1ifa nrd iri,,,-1r r,rass test


 of life and injury was greatest
 Painted at Sight of Flames.
 Mary McDonough was on the fourth floor, at her machine, when the fire broke out. The employees on that floor thought the alarm was for a fire drill and marshalled in line slowly. When the flames burst upon them many tainted and a panic ensued. Miss McDonough also swooned. She believes she was carried out by one of the men employees. She was un- injured. She said the flames spread so rapidly there was no time for any concerted rescue work or for the reg ular fire drill march to be carried out.
 Girls Frantic with Pain.
 Vernon Wilbur. superintendent of service in the burned shop, said
 lynn Dibble and I ran to the fire escape and climbed up our ladder We dropped two girls to the men below. They were standing five or six deep in each window with the flames way ing directly behind them. They were mad with pain and the sound of their cries was as if the wind were bowling in our ears"
 As soon as the first of the fire vic- tims were brought to the hospital con- valescents among the regular patients were set to work tearing up bandages; i; . board for splints to bind up the broken limbs and ministers came to offer spiritual consolation to the desperately Injured.
 Sustained Broken Spine.
 Never before in the history of Ringhamton has such a scene been enacted in the local hospital and de- spite the fact that the injured and dying lay all about, the doctors and nurses worked with amazing rapidity and coolness. Scarcely an hour after the fire every one of the patients there had been attended to and made as were badly burned ana were swathed in bandages from head to foot
 One of the most pathetic cases at the hospital is that of Miss Ruth Crotty who is slowly dying with 8 broken spine. Miss Crotty came here with her two sisters, neither of whom, so far as can be learned, escaped from the fire.
 Jumped from Window.
 When I first heard the. alarm of fire" said Miss Crotty, T jumped from my chair and started for the stairs, but when l reached them they were so crowded with the other opera tors that I could not get down. In
 
 a ablaze"
 Miss Crotty jumped from a window.
 Beside the glowing ruins of the over all factory lie the twisted irons of what were the fire escapes from which victims dropped like flies. when the flames t1ared out of the windows and came billowing back along the walls under the impulse of the wind and back draft. About them is likely to center a searching inquiry as to their adequacy to serve the purpose for which they were erected.
 Two Iron Fire Escapes.
 There were two iron fire escapes and to these employees crowded when es- cape by the stairs was seen to be cut off. The fire escapes were soon loaded but the fire spread so rapidly that those who had sought safety by means of them could not get to the ground them to endure it. Mrs Ida Prentice Jumped from one of the windows on the fourth floor.
 When the fire alarm sounded the girls hesitated," said Mrs. Prentice. '1 called to the operators to get out as soon as possible. Then the flames burst upon us I was nearly smoth- cred, and hanging to the steam pipe was barely able to make my way to the window. Here l wrapped an awning about me and jumped Before I jumped I looked back and saw scores Of girls There must have been many left to burn alive"
 Woman Jumps Four Stories.
 Mrs. Mary Quick, jumped from the second story, sustaining a strained back, sprained arm and bad burns, She also suffered severely from shock.
 Mary Bennett, a young employe. re- ce1ved a broken pelvis and two broken thighs. Besides she was badly burned,
 Mrs. Mary Leighton jumped from the fourth story window when she saw all retreat was cut off, but only after she had been seriously burned about the head, arms and upper part of her body. It IS thought she was among those who leaped for their livesf from the upper stories. Her face is so disfigured that 1t scarcely. resembles that of a human being.
 Mrs. Alvin White suffered frac ture of both legs below the knees and was otherwise badly injured She died at the hospital with her husband at her bedside.
 Majority of Victims Americans.
 Much difficulty was encountered in compiling even a partial list of the dead and injured tonight because the roster of employees was kept in the safe which is buried beneath the ruins. Of the twenty percent. of foreigners employed, some were ItaI- ians, some Polish and some Jewesses. But the great majority of the victims were Americans. Some of them had been with the company thirty-one years.
 Reed B. Freeman, president or the company which operated the factory, said tonight that he believed it was a cigarette smoker who was responsi- ble for the disaster.
 Cigarette Fiend Biar1sd.
 Some of our employees are so ad- dicted to the cigarette habit that, smoking being forbidden in the build ing, they went out into the alley every hour or so for puff" said MT. Free man. "I believe that one of these, on returning to his work. threw the butt of his cigarette under the stairway"
 Every regulation of the fire laws was complied withC' continued MT. Freeman. Tt is not true that the floors were covered with lint and ot11- or 1nfiammable material. They were all kept carefully swept and the only in- fammabIe things in the building were the piles of garments
 Other RuiIdinne Nananed