Arizona republican., 1913-07-23
SUDDENNESS OF
 FLAMING DISASTER
Survivors Remember HOr- TOT, the Painting of Wo- men by the Dozens When They Saw the Rush of Flames
ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCH

BINGHANTON. x. Y, July 2. - Fifty were killed, according to late advices, and as many injured. a dozen mortalIy, in d fire that swept the fOur-story factory building of the Binghamton Clothing company this afternoon The victims were mostly women and girls.
 Early tonight tWentY-twO bodies had been recovered. In the city hos pital and in private institutions are thirty injured. Some two score are known to have escaped as by q miracle from the building which burst into flames like a finder box and became a roaring furnace almost immediately after the first alarm was sounded. There were about 125 i'll the factory when the fire broke out. Those unaccOunted for, or most of them, are believed to be still in the red-ho ruins of the structure.
 Ghastly Night Scene
 Around the scene of the fire dis trict the greatest the city has ever known, thousands watched the work CTS in the glare of three big search lights, many in the great thronG be- ing restrained only by closely drawn lines of police from rushing into the ruins to seek the bodies of relatives or friends.
 Water in many streams are being poured into the fiery pit that a few hours ago was the cellar of the burned establishment As the ruins cooled slightly from time to time, the spot upon which the streams cen tered, men went forward to dig as long as human endurance would al- low them to work. Occasionally q body was found and taken quickly away.
 The work will go on all night, and perhaps all day tomorrow before the glowing mass gives up the last of the dead. It will take at least ten days, the authorities believe, before the cellar will be cleared and the whole truth known.
 Triangle Disaster Recalled
 The big, outstanding fact of the catastrophe was it's suddenness. In this it bears a strong resemblance to the Triangle Waist company dis aster in New York, where 147 lives were last when the inflammable ma terial and waists littering the floor hlazed up with incredible rapidity and set the imprisoned workers jumping from the windows to their death. The parallel here fails only on the height and construction of the building and the length of the dead and injured list Another resemblance to the New York disaster is that the fire, it is believed, was started by throwing cigarette butt or match.
 In todays tragedy, the burst of the flames followed quickly by an alarm There was small opportunity for any one to use ordinary, or even emer- gency. means of escape. Fire drills
  frequently. in fact that the em- ployes had found them mOnOtoHous
 Precautions Had Been Taken
 The building was equipped with fire escapes and an automatic alarm system The alarm tinkled at 2:@O o'clock. Mrs Reed B. Freeman, the wife of the proprietor, telephoned to the central fire station. The usual apparatus for the fire still alarm re- sponded Some excited person at Warren and Chenango streets, four blocks away. saw the burst of flame and pulled the box there The rest of the companies answered this alarm
 That meant ten minutes delay for a part of the firemen. But even those that arrived first were unable to do anything. The first puff of flames was hardly dscerned before the fire leaped along the staircases and walls. up the elevator shaft and along the floors and ceiling. There was a roar in front and rear and the flames belched forth clear across Wall street, on which the build1n fronted whitening shade trees on the river bank and scOrching build ings across the alley at the rear.