Hurl Themselves From Upper Floors of 10-Story Down Town Fire Trap
Bodies Piled By The Score In The Street
Blaze Started in Triangle Shirt Waist Co.’s Plant
Worst In The City’s History
Chief Croker Blames Municipal Building Department
New YorkYork, March 25.—A fire that spread like a spark in a powder train, trapped 2,000 employes of the Triangle Shirt Waist company, on the eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the 10-story loft building at Waverly place and Greene street, at 5 o’clock this after noon.
More than 175 lives were lost. The police figures at midnight were 150 dead and 75 injured. One hundred and fifty had been taken to the morgue up to midnight. There were at that hour still 12 bodies on the ninth floor, according to Chief Croker, who was directing the work of removal. Three victims had died in St. Vincent’s hospital; three in Bellevue and one in the New York hospital. There were still a number of bodies in the basement and sub-basement of the structure, but it was said by the chief that it would be impossible to tell before morning just how many as the sub-cellar was completely filled with water and the cellar was waist deep. The water was being pumped out but this was an all night task.
DEAD WERE MOSTLY WOMEN.
The dead are chiefly women and young girls, some of them pitifully young to take up the burden of wage earners and some of them old women that an unkind fate kept in the battle for daily bread when their years should have won them a peaceful close of life. Of those who jumped, three survived, while the others were crushed out of all human semblance. Some of the others miraculously managed to reach the street by means of the stairways and two of the four elevators with which the building was equipped. The remainder perished miserably, while firemen and spectators raged impotently on the street, powerless to do anything.
Strong men wept, while others stormed to and fro, striving vainly to do something for those who were beyond human aid. The building is a 10-story structure, located on the northeast corner of Washington place and Greene street. Because of the fact that it is located in what is known as the high pressure zone, where an unlimited supply of water is always available, and its exterior was brick and stone, there was only one fire escape on It. This is what is called an “inside exit” and only reached to the seventh floor. The inner stairways were narrow, as they were seldom used. The three upper floors of the building were occupied by the Triangle Waist Co., manufacturers of women’s shirt waists, cloaks, etc. The lower floors are occupied by a miscellaneous collection of manufacturing firms. The Triangle Co. employed 750 persons, most of whom were women and young girls. As usual in fires of this character, the majority of the dead are women.
CROKER BLAMES CITY.
The responsibility for the holocaust is placed squarely on the city building department by Fire Chief Croker. While directing the work of the army of firemen called out on three alarms, he said to the newspapermen:
“I know there were no real fire escapes. For years I have agitated to have them placed on factory buildings, but no attention has been paid to me.”
It was shortly after 4:30 this afternoon when 50 students In the professional school of New York university, which fronts on University place, were startled by the crash of falling glass. Instantaneously there was a rush to the street, and as the youths reached there they say the first body come swirling down. It was that of a young girl, apparently not more than 17 years old. Her clothing was on fire, and as she struck the stone pavement her head was crushed, the blood and brains scattering almost to the middle of the street.
JUMP TO THEIR DEATH.
One after the other 10 others jumped while the people on the street gazed In helpless horror. When the first piece of fire apparatus reached the scene, every window on the eighth, ninth and 10th floors was filled with shrieking men and women, some begging for help while others were praying. The eighth floor windows were pouring out smoke and flame while framed in them were both women and men who, as they realized that they must choose between two modes of death for the most part jumped. The clothing on nearly everybody that struck the pavement was afire and in some cases before they finally dropped It had been burned almost completely off. The first engine company on the scene rushed with a canvas life net directly under the main entrance and the captain in charge shouted to those above: “Keep cool and jump one at a time.” But the frenzied people either could not understand or the heat was too fierce and three persons jumped at the same instant. The impact of the bodies tore the net into shreds, rendering it useless.
LADDER TOO SHORT.
A big extension truck rolled up to the structure and the ladder was swung into place and hurriedly raised. A groan from both firemen and the terrified spectators went up as It was seen that the ladder reached only to midway between the sixth and seventh floors. Two firemen grasped scaling ladders and started up, only to be driven back by the fire that was now feeding on the wooden window casings and burning as rapidly as though fed with oil.
ONLOOKERS NEARLY INSANE.
The clang of the fire apparatus coming from all directions and the shouts of the imperilled attracted great crowds from every direction and soon the streets leading into Washington square were jammed. As each body crashed down into the street the spectators went almost insane. Women and men fainted from the horrors of the sight, while others hysterically sank to their knees and prayed and cried completely unstrung. Over on the Green street side of the building 15 women and girls jumped one after the other so close that they collided in the air. Fourteen of these were instantly killed, while the fifteenth, a 17-year-old girl, was taken out of the pile more than an hour after the fire started still alive although very badly hurt. As the fire companies rushed up, every life net available was brought into play, but most of them uselessly. They seemed merely to serve for a target for the terrified victims who jumped so fast that the nets were broken and the men and women who had hoped for life crashed through to death, their bodies being spattered over the pavement.
BURNED IN MIDAIR.
One woman jumped from the top floor only to have her dress catch on a broken awning stanchion. Her body hung there and remained, a living torch, until the clothing burned, through, and then fell to the pavement. Inside the building other terrible scenes were being enacted. There were two elevators running when the fire started. One was in charge of Joseph Zito, 23, and the other John Gregory. Each made a number of trips to the upper floors, running through the smoke and flame. Finally the Gregory elevator got jammed at the bottom and the operator was compelled to desert it. As he left, there was a thud on the roof and a second later a half dozen bodies came down, life being crushed out on the steel hood of the car.
ELEVATOR BOY A HERO.
Zito managed to make another trip to the ninth floor and had got five persons on board when a puff of flame caused him to start downward. As he passed the floor below Irene Zieboree, who had tried to get down the stairs and been driven back by the fire, smashed the glass door. Zito checked his elevator and crowded 20 others in the car. He got these to the ground while cries and moans of the other victims abandoned on the floor could he heard on the street.
A number of the girls seeing that there was no hope of the elevators making another trip tried to slide down the cable. Those who reached the wire rope could not check their momentum and after their hands were burned they let go and were crushed to death at the bottom of the shaft. Seeing that there was no chance of saving more lives, Chief Croker ordered his men to quench the fire and they attacked it on all sides. The inflammable materials used In the shirt waist factory, however, burned like tender, and It was more than two hours before the fire was under control.
COVER UP BODIES.
Meanwhile the firemen and police had covered the bodies of the dead on the sidewalks with blankets and tarpaulins. Every hospital in the downtown section of the city had rushed all of its ambulances to the scene and the internes were aided by volunteer doctors who came from every direction. All had their work cut out. During the first rush down the stairs many of those who had escaped had been trampled or had fallen in their excitement and were bruised and cut. Some sustained fractured limbs. As fast as possible they were rushed to the hospitals.
CAUSE IN DOUBT.
The cause of the fire was in doubt, but the firemen were inclined to believe that it resulted from the explosion of a gasoline engine which furnished the power in the Triangle plant.
This belief was based on the story of the elevator man and some of the survivors, who said they heard an explosion a few seconds before the fire broke out. Harris and Blank, the two partners in the firm, however, denied that there was an explosion. They said that, so far as they had been able to ascertain, the fire was caused by a spark from a pulley that had become jammed and heated.
Word of the fearful nature of the fire soon spread to those who had relatives working in the shirt factory, and there was a rush of women to the scene. Crying and beseeching the police, they tried to break through the fire lines to reach the silent forms that lay under the rough woolen blankets and brown canvas, but realizing that to be kind it was necessary to be cruel, the police forced the anxious, heartbroken people back. Some who fainted were cared for by the ambulance surgeons on the scene.
75 COFFINS ARRIVE.
While the fire was at its height, the coroners of Manhattan arrived and started an investigation. A hurry order was sent in to Bellevue hospital for 75 coffins, and patrol wagons hurried them to the scene. After the coroners had consulted, they directed that the bodies of the unfortunates in the street he placed in the flimsy brown pine boxes and taken to the city morgue at 26th street and East river. Reverently the small army of police picked up the poor broken forms and placed them in the coffins, covering them with sheets that had been requisitioned from Bellevue hospital. They were then loaded into patrol wags, grocery wagons, delivery trucks and every other means of conveyance and taken to tile morgue. It was soon seen that the morgue was too small, so the big dock of the charities department adjoining was thrown open, and the bodies were laid out there in long rows.
As soon as the fire was under control the firemen started to search the building. At the foot of the airshaft “inside lire escape” they found a number of bodies, while others, a total of 20 in all, were taken from the elevator wells.
TERRIBLY CHARRED.
These bodies were terribly charred and mangled. The clothing was burned off many, while others were but burned fragments of flesh and bone. Veteran firemen, like Chief Croker, who have witnessed many terrible sights during their years of service, said that they had never encountered any thing more horrifying.
Croker, with a squad of firemen and Capt. Dominick Henry, of the Mercer street station, penetrated to the ninth floor. There they encountered another horror. Piled up against the closed doors of the elevators were charred bodies, most of them almost entirely denuded of clothing. It had been a fight of the strong against the weak, but victory availed the victors nothing as all had been smothered by the smoke and finally sank on the floor unconscious there to remain until the fire had done its work.
PARTNERS GET OUT.
Morris Blank, one of the partners in the firm had his wife, his two children and the latter’s governess in the office when the cry of fire was raised. He rushed out of the door and joined his partner, Isaas Harris. Together they held back the men and pushed the woman into the elevators and down the stairways. It was only when the elevators were useless that they desisted and made their own escape. When he reached the street Blank remembered his family and tried to go back but was driven down the stairs by the fire. Whether they got out safely had not been learned at a late hour tonight. Harris said that a majority of his employes were Italians. He said that the firm had had a number of strikes and had replaced the strikers, wherever they could, with Italians. He said that he did not know how many were dead and when the police tried to question him he collapsed and was sent home in an ambulance.
WHITMAN ON DECK.
When word of the holocaust reached District Attorney Whitman he hurried to the scene with a number of his assistants and started an investigation. He said that he was satisfied that the loss of life was due to criminal carelessness and he and Fire Marshal Beers questioned survivors and all persons who could throw light on the tragedy.
When the firemen started to get the bodies down to the street from the upper floors they discovered that the stairways were destroyed. Engines were then brought up alongside of the shattered structure and their search lights trained on the upper windows. Each body was wrapped in a blanket and lowered to the ground by ropes, after which it was placed in a coffin and taken to the morgue.
CORONER’S STATEMENT.
At 9;30 Coroner Molzheuser, who had taken charge of the case, said he did not believe it would be possible to get all of the bodies out of the building before tomorrow. He said there were a number in the cellar and sub-cellar, which are filled with water, and he made arrangements to [text faded] engine pump the cellars out. It was his opinion, he said, that the dead might reach as high as 250, but the police said this estimate was too high.
“This was supposed to be a modern fireproof building,” said Holzhauser, “but after my inspection I can only characterize it as a worse fire trap than any of the ramshackle structures on the east side. I have arranged with District Attorney Whitman to begin the inquest on Monday, and will do my best to see that those responsible for the conditions that have cost the lives of so many workers are properly punished.”
REMARKABLE RESCUE.
The most remarkable rescue in the history of the New York fire department was made in the building just before 9 o’clock. A deputy chief while wading through the water in the cellar heard groans coming from the sub-cellar in the neighborhood of the freight elevator. Hurriedly summoning a number of men with lanterns he lowered himself into the water. There submerged, with only his head above the water, but clinging with a death grip to the cable of the elevator he found Hyman Meshel, 21, of 332 East 15th street. The boy was hurriedly carried into the street, where an ambulance surgeon forced a stimulant down his throat and brought him back to consciousness. Meshel said that he was on the ninth floor when the fire broke out and, finding his escape cut off he had slid down the elevator cable landing in the sub-cellar. Too weak to get any further he hung there while the water slowly rose until it reached his neck, his right arm is very badly injured but the doctors think he will live. Annie Rosen. 25, was one of those who leaped from the lower floors of the building escaping with minor injuries. A moment later, however, the young woman became hysterical and was removed to Bellevue. There hour after hour she raved of the horror she had witnessed and at midnight her mind had given way and she had become a maniac.
SCENES AT THE MORGUE.
The old covered dock of the department of charities at the foot of East 26th street, adjoining Bellevue hospital, was the scene, tonight, of pathetic, soul-rending happenings that have not been paralleled since the victims of the General Slocum disaster were brought there to be identified. For hours vehicles of every description rolled up to the entrances and stalwart policemen carried into the structure pine boxes containing the shattered forms of those who lost their lives in the fire that demolished the Triangle Waist Co.’s plant.
As fast as the bodies could be tagged by the morgue keeper and his assistants, aided by a small army of police, they were taken from the coffins and arranged in long rows on the floor. Each body was made as presentable as possible and covered with a sheet.
By order of the coroner and the police officials efforts to Identify the victims were suspended until more than 100 bodies had reached the morgue. The majority of the victims were Italians and long before the first persons were allowed to go inside the street adjacent was jammed with men, women and children seeking for loved ones who were missing. By 10 o’clock the crowd about the morgue numbered 5,000. Police reserves from a dozen precincts held a line beyond which none was permitted to go. Other uniformed officers mingled with the throng and tried to comfort the broken-hearted. It was a gruesome task as the Latin-Americans, excitable under ordinary circumstances, seemed to have lost all control of themselves and while the police were as kind as possible it was necessary in numerous circumstances forcibly to restrain many who were hysterical and threw themselves madly against the police lines.
There were 109 bodies in the morgue at 10 o’clock when Deputy Police Commissioner Driscoll permitted the first squad of searchers to go into the building.
From one shrouded form to the other they passed, but the initial search proved unavailing. As the party started towards the door down through the low row of white covered bodies, one of the women, attracted by a glittering ring on the hand of one of the badly charred forms, stooped and gazed a.t it. Then with a cry: “My God, Mary!” she straightened up and fell in a dead faint across the cold form. The body was that of Mary Fonesta, a shirt worker, who had been in this, country only a short time. From that time on identification followed slowly.
The pine boxes which were used to convey the victims from the scene of death were those hurriedly bought by the city for use at the time of the destruction of the General Slocum. For years they had lain stored away in a corner of the morgue.
A CRIMINAL TRAP.
The cause of this frightful calamity is official negligence. Housing during the busy hours of the day thousands of employes, this big and high reach building was equipped with but one narrow iron fire escape, and that in the rear, leading into an almost blind court. As though this neglect and absolute disregard for human life were not enough, a criminal trap placed as a warning to the employes of the Triangle company that they were constantly under suspicion of theft, added scores to the roll of death. An iron door, opening inwardly, had been placed at the head of the stairway on the ninth finer by the Triangle company. When expensive material was being handled on the ninth floor, where 1,500 women were employed, this door was closed, and none could leave the room without a superficial search, the women being required to open their coats and cloaks and expose the contents of their handbags or any packages they might have with them. The entire force had to under go this scrutiny at the close of the working day.
When the alarm of fire was given today there was a mad rush for the stairway. The iron door shutting off the stairway was closed and sealed by the press of the struggling mass of women against it. It was not opened until many of the frightened women had hurled themselves from the window or had fainted from fright and were left to die in the flames. When by chance rather than concerted effort this diabolical trap was sprung, the rush of women down the stairway left dead, dying and cruelly trampled in its wake and at points the stairway was fairly choked with the dead.
BlANCH’S STATEMENT.
Mr. Blanck said that the firm had taken great precautions against fire; that there were two stairways in the building and two elevators, with fire escapes in the rear. He said there were always two watchmen on duty, night and day, but that the watchmen were cleaning the building when the fire started. He added that there were automatic fire alarms on every floor and that it was a rule of the firm that no door should be locked during working hours.
Mr. Blanck estimated the damage at $200,000 and said that about 80 per cent of it was covered by insurance.
New Haven Union, New Haven, CT, March 26, 1911