The Ely miner., 1913-07-25
50 WOMEN ARE
BURNED ALIVE;
SCORES INJURED
6lNGHAMTON, N. ", SCENE OF
HORRIFYING SACRIFICE OF
LIFE WHEN FACTORY is
BURNED.
NO CHANCE TO SAVE THE
VICTIMS FROM INFERNO
Workers Penned on Top Floor Arc
Shut Off From All the Escapes
Heat So Terrific That Fire
men Cannot Be of Any
Assistance

Binghamton, N. Y, July 24.-Fifty
persons were killed, according to lat
est estimates, and many injured,
dozen mortally, in a fire which swept
the four-story factory building of the
Binghamton Clothing company. The
victims were chiefly women and girls.
Thirty in Hospital.
More than a score of bodies have
been recovered. In the city hospital
and in private institutions are thirty
injured Some two-score persons are
known to have escaped as by a mir
acle from the building, which burst
into flame like tinderox and became
a roaring furnace in almost no time
after the first alarm was sounded.
About 125 persons were in the fac
tory when the fire broke out. Those
unaccounted for, or most of them, are
believed to be in the ruins of the
structure.
Bystanders Are Frantic.
Around the scene of the disaster
glare of three searchlights, many in
the great throng being restrained only
by the police from rushing into the
ruins for the bodies of relatives or
friends.
Water in many streams was poured
into the fiery pit that few hours be-
fore was the cellar of the burned es-
tablishment AS the ruins were cool
ed slightly, from time to time, in
spot on which streams were centered,
men went forward to dig as long as
human endurance would allow them
to work Occasionally a body was
found and taken quickly away. This
work went on for hours and, perhaps,
will go on many hours longer before
the glowing mass gives up its last
dead. 1t will take at least two days,
the authorities believe, before the
cellar can be cleared and the whole
truth known.
Resembles Triangle Fire.
The big, outstanding fact of the Ca
tastrophe was its suddenness. In
this the disaster bears strong re-
semblance to the Triangle Waist COM
pany fire in New York, where LAT
lives were lost when the inf1ammable
material upon which the employees
were working and the waste which
Uttered the floors blazed up with in
conceivable rapidity and set the i'm
prisoned workers jumping from the
windows to their death. The paral-
lei fails only in the lesser height and
different construction of the building
and in the number of the dead and
injured.
Another resemblance to the New
York disaster is that the fire is be-
lieved to have been started by the
careless throwing of cigarette butt
or match.
No Chance for Escape.
In the present tragedy the killing
burst of flame followed quickly the
alarm. There was small opportunity
for anyone to use the ordinary of even
the emergency means of escape. Fire
drills had been carried on regularly
so frequently, in fact, that the en-
ployes had found them monotonous.
The building was equipped with fire
escapes and an automatic alarm sys-
tenn The alarm tinkled. Mrs. Reed
B. Freeman, wife of the proprietor,
.telephoned to the central fire station.
The usual apparatus for first still
alarm responded. Some excited per-
son at Warren and Chenango streets,
four blocks away, saw a burst Of
flame and pulled the box there. The
rest of the companies answered this
alarm.
Firemen Are Delayed.
That meant 10 minutes of delay for
part of the firemen. But even those
who arrived first were unable to do
anything.
+: After this fierce blast, the fire
seemed to burst from every part of
the building at once. On the frees
capes women, children and men were
clustered, and inside others were
waiting to get on the iron ladder But
the flames were too quick for them.
The slow starting of the fire drill
may have contributed to the disaster,
the delay in getting all the fremen to
the scene may have been responsible
for part of the loss of life. But per-
sons who were early on the scene say
that those things did not materially
affect the horrible result.