Factory Workers, Trapped, Leap or Burn to Death
When Single Stairway is Blocked by Flames
Utica, NY Herald Dispatch, July 23, 1913
The worst fire in the history of Binghamton [Broome Co., NY] broke out yesterday afternoon shortly before 3 o'clock in the plant of the Binghamton Clothing Company at No. 17-18 Wall Street. One hundred and twenty-five employees, mostly women and girls, were trapped. Of these 41 were known to have escaped and three are suffering from severe injuries; 16 charred bodies which will probably never be identified are in the morgue. Twenty-two operatives of the factory have been reported missing by their relatives. A conservative estimate places the total number of deaths at about 50. The known dead are: Nellie Connor, Mary Cregan, Sidney Dimmick, Mrs Thomas Doran, Miss Fulmer, Mrs. Nellie Geason, Louis Hartwell, Louise Hartmann, John Schermerhorn, Mrs. Edwin White. The total estimated damage by Fire and water in the buildings and stock of five concerns is estimated at $207.000. A greater part is covered by insurance. The post office is partly burned although the walls of the building were left intact. In addition to the loss of the Binghamton Clothing Company severe losses were sustained by Sinon O'Neil the McKallor Drug Company and the Link Piano Company.
The holocaust, the immensity of which is growing hourly, came close upon three alarms sounded from various parts of the city between 11 and 3 o'clock. Assistant Chief Eldredge and Company No. 2 were engaged in extinguishing a small fire on Highland avenue when the alarm from the Binghamton clothing Company was sounded.
The immense loss of life is believed to be due not to the construction of the building, but to the fact that the employees, believing that one of the frequent fire drills was being held, made little effort to flee the building. Many returned to the dressing rooms on the upper floor for clothing and pocketbooks and were caught in a seething floor of flames. Women and girls, too weak to go farther, dropped exhausted on a fire escape at the rear of the building and literally roasted to death, their burning bodies slowly dropping into the furnace below. A veritable rain of human flesh fell from the windows on the [?] side of the building. The intensity of the heat which prevented the firemen from getting within fighting range of the building until rescue was too late made impossible the recovery of many bodies.
Only the hardest and most efficient work on the part of the Fire Department prevented the spread of the flames to business blocks lining Water street between Court and Henry. In the building occupied by the McKallor Drug Company was a large amount of highly explosive chemicals. Iron doors and shutters prevented the fire from reaching this building.
Inscribed on the roll of fame which will stand forever in the memory of the city are the names of Nellie Connor and Sidney Dimmick, who stood at their posts until the last, watching the lines that went hurriedly past them. Their turn came but it was too late. And it is written "Died at their Post." Valuable assistance was rendered by the visiting Erie firemen who were assembled in convention and by the Lesstershire Fire Department, whish was summoned as soon as the intensity of the fire was realized. ....No exact estimate of the known dead or of the persons known to have been in the factory at the time of the fire can be obtained, owing to the loss of the list of employees which was in the company's safe and now lies buried beneath the mass of debris. This statement is on the authority of Reed S. .Freeman president of the Binghamton Clothing Company and K.J. Lawrence, bookkeeper of the concern.
It was just 20 minutes before 2 o'clock when Jared Orr of No. 103 Walnut street, who was employed in the Binghamton Overall Factory on the third floor, went down to the ground floor of the building and sauntered over toward the elevator shaft. The machines were humming busily and in the spot where the fire was to break forth there was nothing of interest. He turned back and returned to work on the third floor. There was apparently nothing on the first floor according to his story, which was in the least out of the ordinary. .... Five minutes from the time Orr had made his rounds of the first floor of the overall factory the entire building was a mass of flames. Mrs. Read B. Freeman, the wife of the president of the concern attempted to call Central Fire Station but says that she was unable to get connections. James Hoyt, who was walking along Water street at the time turned in the box and in a moment the first relay of the department was at the scene. The entire building supposed to be of fairly fireproof construction was seething in flames and the prostrate forms of women huddled together on the fire escapes gave the department the first indication of the terrible loss of life that was to ensue.
Before the companies had been on the scene a minute the heat had become so intense that it was almost impossible to get within 150 feet of the building. Bodies came hurtling through the air from the windows of the entire four floors of the building and lay mangled on the earth. A perfect rain of human flesh came from the south side and from the rear of the building. Within five minutes after the first alarm of fire had sounded there was not a living being inside or within 100 feet at the Binghamton Overall Factory. The loss of life had been as sudden as it was terrific.
There were just two questions which every man and woman in the seething crowd that passed upon the fire stricken territory for blocks wanted answered. How did the fire start? Why was it that in a four-story building which was almost completely isolated from surrounding structures there should have been such a terrific loss of life? Why hadn't the 134 girls that were on the payroll of the concern on Saturday night been able to get out?
Reed B. Freeman, president of the company, said later in the day that fire drills had been inaugurated in the factory some time ago, and that they had been held at regular intervals with great success. The entire force of employees had always made their exit to safety in a comparatively short time and there had seemed little danger that life would be lost in case of fire. The tremendous loss of life was due to just one thing--the girls in the Binghamton Overall Factory yesterday afternoon believed that the gong, which in reality announced the coming of the holocaust was the signal for another fire drill. They remembered the fire drills of the past and they thought that there was plenty of time to get down into the street.
Burned Victims Remains Interred
Armenia NY Times, Aug. 2, 1913
Binghamton--Upon the shoulders of exempt firemen and policemen, the twenty-one caskets containing the unidentified dead from the Binghamton Clothing Company fire, were borne to their last resting place in Spring Forest cemetery Sunday afternoon after a public funeral. It was the most impressive and mournful occasion in the history of the southern tier since Daniel S. Dickson, sage, orator, the friend of Lincoln and leader of the northern "war Democrats" was buried in the same cemetery many years ago.
The line of plain, black caskets, each completely covered with flowers, reached from the main entrance of the cemetery to the plot set apart for them. During the march of the coffin bearers, the thousands of persons in and about the cemetery were silent, and stood with bared heads. Only occasionally was the silence broken by the groans of those in sorrow or the sobbing of women. So many families had been affected by the disaster, either through the ties of blood or friendship, that it seemed as it most of those present were directly concerned. The graves were made in a circle for the erection of a monument later. The burial was preceded by a most impressive memorial service in Stone Opera House where the leaders of religious denominations, civic officials, head of fraternities, relatives and friends of the deceased and the public generally took part.
No comments:
Post a Comment