Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1913-08-01
65 MAY Be DEAD
IN FACTORY FIRE.
Search Ruins Of Binghamton
Mill For CorpSes,
aPUFF" AID ALL WAS OVER
The Injured Were Rushed to Hos
pital After 5inJhamton Holocaust
and Many Will Die.


After several estimates had been
made as to the number Of lives lost IN
the fire that fattened the Bingham.
ton N. Y, clothing factory's plant, the
list OF probable dead was increased &c
siXty-iiye.
A careful estimate places the mum
Der of those in the building at the
time the fire started at III. OF these
only tifty-thlee are known to be saved
Six dead have been identified; fifteen
bodies, charred beyond recognition,
are at the morgue; seven injured are
in the hospitals; forty-slx several
slightly injured, are safe at theli
homes. Steven have been reported by
relatives as missing, and twenty-slz
others are unaccounted for.
A wisp of smoke and a squirt OF
fame swept up the stairway leading
to the second floor OF a four-story
brick building at II Wall street, Bing,
hamton, N. Y, and twenty minutes
later twenty-five lives had been lost
and fifty persons had been injured,
many of whom will not recover.
The building was the factory Oh the
Binghamton Clothing company, for
merly the Freeman Overall company
employing 125 girls.
There were heartrending scenes
when several girls clinging to fire es'
capes were swept by sheets OF lame
or jumped from the factory windows
Exactly how many were penned In
side was hard to. determine in the
panic.
Ell. Lawrence, bookkeeper Of the
company, said that he was working
in the Office when the first, alarm was
sounded. The flames were under the
front stairway. There was also a rear
stairway and fire escapes at the south
side of the building.
Most Of the women were employees
in the machine operating room on the
fourth floor. They made no attempt to
hurry from the building at first, think.
ing the alarm was fire drill. Messen-
gers were rushed through the building
to drive the women out
Gust them" said Lawrence, "the
whole building burst into flames. II
was of the ordinary factory construc
ton, with timber supports and brick
walls. But it went up like powder-a
puff and all was over. When the flames
rushed up the front stairway it was
awful
"The women were in panic in an
instant. They rushed to the. fire es
capes and many of them leaped from
the windows.
81 had 125 names on my pay rolls,
but some of the employees were gone
on vacation. The lists are all inside
the burned factory. 1 didn't have time
to put them away or close the safe. II
is impossible for the present to call
the roll or get an accurate line on
those who are missing"
Women and girls, too weak to go
further, dropped exhausted on the sin.
gle fire escape in the rear Of the
building and literally roasted to death,
portions of the bodies dropping into
the street. Others jumped and were
killed.
Half dozen of the panic stricken
girls rushed into the elevator, which
was standing on the fourth floor. A
moment later all dropped to their
death.
The fire spread to the postof1ce, the
rear of which was burned off, and to
the buildings of the McKaller Drug
company, Simon O'Neill, the Bingham
ton Motor Car company garage and
Christ church. The property loss will
be between 100000 and 100000.