THE FIRE FIEND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 67, 24 July 1913, Page 5

THE FIRE FIEND.

FACTORY AND PRISON.

FIFTY GIRLS PERISH

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright!

[United Press Association.]

New York, July 22

Fire destroyed an overall factory at Binghamton. A .hundred and twenty girls dashed panic-stricken from the building, which was enveloped in flames in a few minutes. The majority escaped with firemen’s help. Others clung to the fire escapes and were caught by the flames issuing, and fell to the pavement. Two bodies, cut in two, wore found in the street after the fire was extinguished. The whole .building was in ashes in twenty minutes.

The death-roll was fifty. After nightfall searchlights were utilised to search for the bodies, the majority of which have been recovered. The tragedy occurred with terrific swiftness, and the whole building was a mass o r flames in a few minutes. Twenty women who heeded the alarm escaped easily, but others dallied thinking

the alarm merely one fop fire drill. Girls stood six-deep around the windows, screaming in agony as the smoke and- flames reached them. Many descended tire fire escapes only to fall into flames bursting out from tlm building’s sides. The escapes were apparently inadequate, and when the girls crowded on to them many fell off. Others threw themselves from lower windows, some escaping with broken limbs. TRAPPED IN A CAGE. • Trapped in the second floor of an antiquated convict cage at Jackson, Mississippi, 35 convict negroes perished in the flames on the Oakley Convict Farm. The men worked on cotton plantations during the day, and were penned in cages at night. The origin of the fire is unknown.