A Grisly Scene
A number of workers made their way to the rooftop. Others cramped into elevators. Neither route was available for long. The smoke made the stairway impossible to travel through. Those who reverted to the fire escape faced a perilous journey. It was flimsy and not well anchored to the building. Soon, it, too was no longer a viable option – the heat from the fire twisted its frame eventually causing it to break and fall, spilling 20 workers to their deaths on the concrete below.
Elevator operators put their lives in danger, racing the elevators to the ninth floor until they were forced to stop when the heat from the fire caused the rails to buckle. When the elevators stopped arriving, workers pried open the doors and used the elevator shaft to shimmy their way downward using cables. Word about the fire spread throughout the city. A crowd gathered and helplessly watched the grisly seen unfold.
Some of them saw the workers jumping from the windows. Some of them saw the workers hesitate before leaping, in which case their clothes would catch fire. People from the street watched as burning bodies fell one by one to their deaths.
The Money Trail
The factory has not been doing well financially. It was not the first time Max Blanck and Issac Harris, the factory owners, saw their business go up in flames. Their four previous businesses were also destroyed by fire. Despite that, and that at the time in New York City the fashion district was plagued by fires, most of which had impeccable timing. They hit right around the time whatever was being sold fell out of fashion with the public. Or, this might happen if there was a large surplus of stock.
Adding to Blanck and Issac’s possible motives for arranging their factory be torched was an insurance policy the duo only recently taken out against the factory. Specifically, the insurance paid out if they lost workers to death or injury. Although an arson suit was never filed against the two men, they were both slammed with first and second degree charged of manslaughter. The fire killed 146 of their employees, most of whom were women and adolescent girls. A trial date was set for December 4, 1911.
The factory owners had a New York lawyer on their side who made a bulk of his living defending high-profile clients. He was noted for using questionable tactics while defending his wealthy clients. In the case against Blanck and Harris, he zeroed in on destroying the credibility of anyone who had anything negative to say about them. He made one woman repeat her testimony over and over.
When she did, he concluded she was only able to recite her answers because she had, like all the others who testified against his clients, memorized her made-up stories, which may have been fed to her, and others, by the prosecution. The prosecution were helpless. In the end, they not even able to prove the factory owners knew the doors of their factory were locked. It did not take long for the jury to find both men not guilty of either count of manslaughter against them. Only a few years later, the pair lost a civil suit filed against them. The charge this time was wrongful death; compensation was awarded to plaintiffs $75 per life lost that day. However, the insurance Blanck and Harris took out just before the blaze engulfed their factory paid them $400 for each of their workers who were killed.