Catasauqua, Pennsylvania

Unicorn Silk Manufacturing Fire

May 2, 1890

CRUSHED BY A WALL.

Fatal Fire in a Silk Mill at Catasauqua, Penn.

An Explosion Kills a Number of Volunteer Firemen.

At 6 o'clock in the morning fire was discovered in the large new building at Catasauqua, Penn., owned and occupied by the Unicorn Silk Manufacturing Company, of New York, with offices at 33 and 35 Greene street. An alarm was quickly sounded, but owing to the hour, the fire companies, which are composed of volunteers, mainly workmen employed in the different furnaces, factories and mills, were under the impression that the whistles were, as usual, calling them to their day's work, and did not respond until the fire had been burning about twenty minutes.

Upon their arrival at the scene of the conflagration considerable difficulty was experienced in securing water for the fire engines, as the mill was built on a bluff overlooking the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company's canal and the Lehigh River, half a mile from the town. They ran their engines down a hill on the other side to the canal and soon had two streams of water on the building, which was by this time a mass of flames.

The mill employed 350 hands, mostly females. They were to have commenced work at 6:30. While they were assembling shortly before that hour fire was discovered in the dyeing-room. The place was without sufficient fire protection, and the flames spread rapidly. The employes [sic] rushed panic stricken from the mill and all got out safely. When it was seen that the mill was doomed the firemen and others devoted themselves toward saving goods, while another force got on top of a one story addition and on the roof.

Suddenly there was a terrific noise amid the flames, and it was at once known that a steam-pipe had exploded. The report caused the great crowd to retreat, but they had only gone a few steps when a section of the south wall of the mill nearly forty feet long and about four feet wide fell with a crash and landed on the roof of the new addition, thirty feet below. The fall of the wall is supposed to have been caused by the concussion of the explosion. A moment later the air was filled with smoke and steam and a cry of horror arose when it was discovered that thirty men had been buried in the ruins. The work of digging them out was at once commenced, and after hours of hard work the bodies were all taken out.

The killed were as follows:
ULYSSES EVERETT, aged twenty. Scalp cut, both hands and arms burned and internally injured. Died at St. Luke's Hospital shortly after being taken there.
CHARLES A FRICK, founder, aged twenty-five years and having wife and three children, burned and crushed. Died three hours after being recovered.
JOHN GOOD, member of Phoenix Fire Company, head crushed, aged twenty-five years, has wife and child.
JOHN LOTTEJEANNI, boss dyer, aged forty, has wife and child. Instantly killed under falling walls.

Three other men were fatally wounded and about thirty were badly injured.

The fire is supposed to have been caused by spontaneous combustion in one of the packing rooms. At 11 o'clock the flames were under control. The loss on building is $50,000, on machinery $35,000, and on stock $25,000. The loss is partially covered by insurance.

Catasauqua is a centre of large mining interests. A few years ago the authorities cast about for some industry that would afford employment for the large female population of the place. In Paterson they opened negotiations with the proprietors of the present Unicorn Silk Manufacturing Company, which ended in the Catasauqua Improvement Company building a mill for the silk company, the latter to pay the interest on the investment and to buy the building at a stipulated price if is should at any time wish do.

The Cranbury Press New Jersey 1890-05-02

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

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