Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-07-25


Blood spashes On Povement Tell
Terrible Story.
Binghamton, n. VA wisp of smoke
and squirt of fame swept up the
stairway leading to the second floor
of four-story brick building at II
Wall street here.
Then came a smother OF smoke and
fame and over 1t all rang the shrieks
of 1875 girl employees. In 20 minutes
the walls of the building crumbled
with deafening roars and the shriveled
corpses of from so to 10 persons, most
ly working girls, were burned in
mass of white-hot ruin.
Many others were injured, and it is
thought that at least dozen of these
will die.
The Binghamton Clothing Company,
of which Reed B. Freeman is manager
and principal stockholder, occupied
the building 1t faced the river and
stood free from surrounding struc-
lures.
While the exact number is not
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been at work on their machines.
Twenty women were at work on the
third floor. where the finishing was
done, and from so to 100 on the top
floor where the scores of sewing ma
chimes we're humming industriously
when the fire broke out.
Thought Alarm Fire Drill.
A fire alarm system had been in
stalled in the factory but two months
ago ana freaaent fire drills were held,
This proved faa 1ndotng s. the my
gorthnate employees sVitiii2i ft.e pasr
two weeks three test alarms had been
sounded and the girls had grown into
the habit of taking their time and
walking leisurely out.
When the fire gong rang at 2.SO
o'clock William Bennett, cutter on
the second floor, noticed wisp of
smoke coming up the stairway leading
from the entrance on the first floor,
He pushed the fire alarm and the
gongs rang throughout the building.
So quick was the fire that before
Bennett and his fellow-employes on
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the room was filed with smoke and
the flames we're leaping up the stair
way. This is said to have been the
only exit from the building except a
fire escape at the back.
crawled Through Smoke.
In the Office on the ground floor Mrs.
Reed B. Freeamn, wife of the man
ager, heard the alarm and remarked,
"Oh, that is another false alarm
Opening the door from the office to
the stairway, she was met by gust
of smoke, and with barely time to
shove the books in the safe and slam
shut the door, shielding their faces
from the heat the Office force frawled
through the binding smoke to safety
On the third and four floors scenes
of horror were being enacted. The
girls, many of Slavic or Italian parent
age, thought the alarm a test and took
their time until rush of superheated
air and burst of flames and smoke
cut off their escape from the stair
way and drove them to the one fire
escape in the rear OF the building.
ladders and hung shrieking for help
Others pushed and pleaded with those
on the escape for another inch, beg
ged them to drop and give those be
hind a chance from the fierce hea
which was blistering hands and faces
Jump From Windows.
Then from the upper windows wom
en- hurled themselves to the ground
fracturing arms and legs and burning
in the debris until rescuers grabbed
their arms and drew them from th'
blazing furnace. Their flesh rolled from
the bones and the moaning, bleeding
victims had to be rolled in blanket
to be carried to places of safety.
In the front, facing Wall street
girls who were crowded from the to-
heavily loaded fire escape fed to th'
windows at the opposite end AM
flung themselves onto the street
Body after body hurled through tn
air and there were great ,splashes o
blood on the Tagging to mark the spo
where some victim, driven to despera
tion by the flames, had perished
corpses Heaped Up
When the fire was controlled SUI
fciently for the firemen to approac
the ruins the sight was ghastly. BE
meath a pile of bricks at the rear c
the factory lay heaped on one anothe
the charred corpses of score OF HI
man beings burned to crisp an