Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-23

 persons were killed, according to late estimates, and many injured, doz- en of them mortally, in a fire which swept the four story factory building of the Binghamton Clothing company this afternoon. The victims were chief ly women and girls.
 At midnight twenty six bodies had been recovered. In the city hoSpita and in private institutions are thirty injured. Some two score persons are known to have escaped as by a mira cle from the building, which burst into flame like a finder box and became 8 roaring furnace almost in no time after the first alarm was sounded.
 Many Still in Red Hot Ruins.
 About 125 persons were in the fac tory when the fire bro1e out The un- accounted for or most of them, are believed to be still in the red hot ruins of the structure.
 Around the scene of the catastrophe the greatest this city has ever known thousands tonight watched the rescu- CTS work in the glare of three big searchlights, many in the great throng being restrained only by the closely drawn police lines. from rushing into the ruins in an effort to find the bodies of relatives or friends.
 Water in many streams is being poured into thea fiery pit that a few hours ago was the cellar of the burned establishment. As the ruins were cool ed a bit from time to time in a spot upon which the streams were centered, men went forward to dig as long as hu- man endurance would allow them to work. Occasionally body was found and taken quickly away.
 Started by Cigarette or Match.
 This work will go on all night and n1I 6arr fCvr1 hafn glowing mass gives up It's last dead. IL will take at least two days, the author ities believe, before the cellar can be cleared and the whole truth of the dis aster revealed.
 The big outstanding fact of the ca- tastrophe is its suddenness. In this the disaster bears a strong resemblance @ to the Triangle Waist Company hOlo- eaust in New York city, where 147 lives were lost when the inf1arnmable ma v ferisl upon which the employees were working and the waste which filtered the floors blazed with tnconceivable rapidfty and set the imprisoned work CTS 1ifnping from the windows to their death. The parallel here fails only in the lesser height and different con- struction of the building and in the length of the list of dead and injured. Another resemblance to the New York disaster was that the fire today is be-
 
 careless throwing away of cigarette butt or match.
 Had Had Regular Fire Drills.
 Tn the tragedy of this afternoon the killing burst of flame followed quickly upon the heels of the alarm. There was small opportunity for any person 10 use the ordinary or even the ener- wency means of escape. Fire drills had been carried on regularly. In fact, so regularly that the employees found them monotonous.
 The building was equipped with fire escapes and an automatic alarm sys- tenn. The alarm tinkled at 2.30 o'clock. Mrs. Reed B. Freeman, wife of the proprietor, telephoned to the central fire station. The usual apparatus for first still alarm responded. Som ex- cited person at Warren and Chenango streets. four blocks away, saw a burst of flame and pulled the box there. The rest of the companies ran to the false alarm.
 Flames Too Quick to Escape.
 That meant ten minutes of delay for part of the firemen. But even those who arrived first were unable 10 do anything. The first puff of flame was hardly discerned before the fire leaped along the stair cascs. up the walls. up the elevator shaft and along the floors and ceiling There was roar front and rear, and the flames belched forth clear across Wall street on which the building fronted' whitening the shade trees on the river bank and scorching a building across an alley at the rear.
 After this fierce blast the fire seem ed to burst from every part of the building at once. Upon the fire es- cape girls, women and men were clustered and inside others were wait ing to get on to the iron ladders. But the flames were too quick for them.
 Life Nets and Ladders Useless.
 The slow starting of the fire drill may have contributed to the holocaust The delay in getting all the firemen 10 the scene may have been responsi- ble for part of the loss of life But say that these things did not materi- ally affect the result.
 When the firemen came in response to the telephone alarm they were un- able to get within 200 feet of the burning building and the nds of the streams from their hose were turned into steam and had no more effect upon the fire than a spray of vapor upon a volcano in action. Life nets, and extension ladders were useless There was no chance of escape for those caught on the upper floors, ex-
 
 many took. while others fell, shrivel- ling and crumpled with the heat.
 Women Painted by Dozens.
 Scarcely one of the survivors was able to give connected account of what occurred on the upper floors of the factory when the employees there, mostly women and girls realized that the fire call was no false alarm and that death was sweeping down upon them. The coolest among them recall cd that. women tainted by dozens and that a scene of indescribabIe confu- sion occurred. Some of the men em- ployes seem to have kept their heads and to have done their best to rescue the imperfiled women.
 The fire escapes were not big enough to hold all who rushed madly to the exits and there was a scramble for the windows.
 Heavy Loss Of Life on Fourth Floor.
 Then from windows and fire es- capes bodies began dropping They fell thick and fast. The building was but four stories high and many who jumped, even from the topmost floor escaped with their lives. although most of them were badly mained. It was on the fourth floor that most of fhm Womep operators were. working