The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1913-07-25
Fifty GIRLS
LOSE LIVES
IN FLAMES
Holocaust Attends a.
Factory Fire.
DIE on UPPER FLOORS
Every Avenue Of Escape Cut OH
without Warning
AllOvER IAEI6H1EEM MINUTES
AllovER IN E|eu1EEM MINUTES
Less Than a Score Of One Hundred
and Fifty Girls Escape Unhurt.
manyof the fifly|njjured Facing
Death In the Hospitals. Story
Of The Disaster.


clang Of the automatic fire alarm
gong stopped the busy fingers Of $50
young girls at work over the ma.
chimes Of the Binghamton Clothing
company. They were not startled or
alarmed. A girl on the crowded
fourth floor, the top, called laughing.
ly across the room: ITS only another
one Of those fire drills. I'm not going
down into the street dressed as am
and make a show Of myself"
The girls. most of them. settled
back to work. Two minutes later
they were dying in flames and smoke
or crushing each other in hopeless at.
tempts to escape down q single stair.
way and the two narrow fire ladders.
In Is minutes the four.story factory Of
approved factory construction" was
mass Of ashes and embers-walls.
roof and supports fallen In.
At least so OF the girls are dead
their bodies consumed by fire or char.
red In the smoking debris of the fac.
tory. At least so more are injured,
many fatally. OF the $50 girls on the
payroll, only II have been accounted
for as uninjured. Over a score are in
the hospitals, and eight are being
cared for In private homes.
President Freeman of the overall
manufacturing company and his book.
keeper Insist that there were less
than 1875 girls in the factory, since
some were on vacation. Fire Chief
Hoag says. though, that there were
$50 girls close-packed on the four
floors. So that the estimate of 80
dead is as low as can reasonably be
made. When the story is told and
the lists are checked up. no one will
be surprised If the death roll runs up
to 65 or rs.
Many Fatally Burned.
Three hospitals, the City. the Ter
race and the e.Overton, are
caring for the injured, some of whom
are so dreadfully burned that they
ran not possibly live. Others. whose
lives are hoped for. are in frightful
agony. Around the hospitals great
crowds are saddened by the means
and pitiful cries Of the injured girls.
Firemen. policemen and volunteers
are digging in the, smoking debris Of
the factory and are taking out not
bodies, but pieces of bodies. OF the
girls that escaped death oh injury.
several are near insanity.
Words can do little more than give
q dim idea Of the shocking fate OF
those that perished. Here In a great
building Of brick and wood, where the
floors were piled inches deep with
oil-soaked rags and waste, where there
was only one stairway and two fire
escapes, $50 girls whose average age
was less than 20 had less than IL
minutes to save their lives.
The fire department was tardy in
responding. not through any fault Of
ito own, but because the nearest com
pany was at work half way across the
city on another alarm. Five minutes
were lost there, although II is doubt.
fu. x the men and the engines could
have done more than stand by. Then,
100, the water pressure was low and
uncertain. where the very strongest
power was required.
Fire Starts In Basement.
But the worst of 1t was that the
iire started in the basement, fed on
rags and paper and pitchy timber
mushroomed and shot upward through
every vent--elevatOr shaft, stairway
and airshafts. So that when the girls
astually realized that the automatt.
alarm was signaling real danger AM,
NIT merely calling for the forma
dill, they we're girdled with fire
Rushing flames met them at the stair
way. Flames curled from every flool
over the rungs of the two fire es
capes. A tower of fame leaped from
the elevator shaft and billowed ovel
the infiammable stun by the ma
chimes.
Scores died before they could reach
stsipwav ~ vind0W. THAR droasAl