New Britain herald., 1915-04-08

inside of a steel cabinet. Samuel H. Gross, the junior partner of the con- cern, also remembered that the safe containing valuable papers and a large sum of money, had been left open ard he followed the girl to the office. He succeeded in finding his way to the safe and locking it. but as he started back to the door again, he stumbled over the body of Miss Levine who had been overcome by the smoke. He lifted her up and carried her to the door but was unable to go any further.
 ScorcEed and Singed.
 Employes rushed to the top of the stairway and carried Miss Levine to the sidewalk while others assisted Gross. The bookkeeper was removed to her home. Gross was quickly re- vived, and he helped the firemen In dragging the hose lines to the burn ing buildings Most of those who had come out were without hats and coats. Some of the young women complained that their clothes had been scorched and their hair somewhat singed.
 The place was a veritable fire trap, and had 1t not been for the fire drills in which the employees were trained to get out in the proper manfer, 1t IS not stretching the facts to say that there would probably have been fire horror similar to that of the Triangle shirtwaist factory in New York, in which scores of young women were killed. There were only two exits, one a stairway, in the middle of the build ing, leading from the street to the workrooms on the second floor, and cto af nf the building leading from the streets to the offices of the concern. On all sides of the building, the windows, excepting a few in the front on the second floor, were covered with iron bars.
 To Prevent Burg1aries.
 It is said that the iron bars had been installed on account of several burglaries at the plant. Only two weeks or so ago thieves again got into the place by saving the bars in the windows, and they carried away 8 large quantity of goods A policeman was kept on watch afterwards for about a week, but the culprits did not return. t-~
 Accordingf to fire department off, cial the condition of the building had
 
 reported to the building inspector, as beyond the powers of the fire depart ment to remedy.
 Cause of Fire Unknown.
 Just how the fire started has not been determined. One theory was that some one had thrown a match into the bin. Only the women worked near the bin, however, and they, Of course, had no occasion to use match es. There was an electric light over the bin, but no electric wires running through any part of it. Another theo- ry is that oil in the workrooms caught fire from spontaneous combustion Very little oil is used in the plant, however. as only few drops are re- quired for the machines every two weeks.
 Other Property Damaged.
 A sausage factory was separated from the burning building by an alley on the north side. Two houses close to the plant on the south side caught fire. One was a brick building front ing on Windsor street, and its roof was ablaze when the f1remen arrived. The second was a wooden house di- rectly in back of the brick building, and not only the north wall caught fire, but also the west side. The flames damaged the attic considerably. Polish families occupied the build ings. They stood in the windows with terror stricten faces, and they did not come into the open until police men motioned to them.
 The f1remen thus worked between two fires when they tried to get at the flames from the south side of the factory and had to tear out the