Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-31
Fatal Factory Fire
Starts Rigid Probe
Continued from Page One

Continued from Page One
work. Panic stricken, they shouted for
help.
Foremen and forewomen organized
the panic stricken girls and led them
from the windows where they were
frantically clawing at the lattice work
to the exit leading to the fire. escape.
Flames Fed by Oil
1t is believed all the girls on the
third floor escaped. As the last one
cape, the flames shot through the chan
dclicr establishment from west to east.
Large quantities Of oil and lacquer.
used in furnishing brass fixtures fed
the flames. which soon ragged up through
the fourth floor and burst through the
wall, which separated the establishment
from Sigmund G. Mayer & Co.'S cigar
factory. 123 to 127 North Fourth
street.
The four alarms were turned in in
rapid succession, as the flames belchcd
from the roof and windows. and swept
north and south through the old loft
building.
On the fifth floor Of No. 1913 more
than score of girls and men, en-
ployed by II. Horner, a cloak and suit
manufacturer. were still at work.
As flames ate through the floor from
the floor below, filling the establish
mcnt with smoke the girls were not all
able to reach safety.
Gives Life to Save Girl
The smoke overcame Katie Horner,
twenty-five years old. of 2437 South
Bculnh street. Thomas Weiner, n
brother in law. of the same address.
had reached the fire exit. when glancing
back through the smoke and flames.
which were licking up through the thin
floor in long tongues, he saw the pros
trate form of his sister in law.
Weiner ran toward the fire. escape
and safety. hcsitated but moment, and
then hurried back into the smoke filled
room to save the girl.
Their bodies were found side by side
after the fire was controlled. Both were
burned so that recognition was possible
only by trinkets which the flames had
not obliterated.
Three employees of the cigar factory
hung on window ledge at the third
floor, waiting for help. They finally
suspended rope to the street and made
their way hand over hand to the street.
AS the flames spread through the
large. subdivided building. they leaped
across Fourth street on the cast and
spsnned Cherry. street on the north.
Thousands of persons. on their way
home from work in the business and
wholesale districts, saw the flames.
They jammed Arch. Fourth and
Cherry streets and delayed the firemen
in rigging their apparatus. As section
after section of hose burst and the high
pressure water system partially failed,
firemen. exhausted from their fight
Thursday night at the South American
street fire, fought against odds which
for time seemed hopeless.
The four alarms brought virtually all
of the frefighting apparatus in the cen
tral section of the city. including a fire
tower.
Less than half an hour after the fire
was discovered. flames had swept the
big FIVE story building as far south as
10 North Fourth street and north as
far as Cherry street.
Several firempn were injured, but,
with the exception of Edward Rock,
of No. Truck Co. none seriously.
Rock received contusions of the alb
domen and right thigh.
Third Big Fire in Nine Days
The third spectacular fire within
nine days, each of which de-
stroyed the buildings in which they oc
Cured, yesterdays confiagration gave
the firemen stubborn fight before it
was finally under control after an hour
and half.
It was almost Z 80 o'clock before the
exhausted firemen started to leave for