Annie Clemends is in trouble, there's a fire on her floor how will she get out? |
I pulled the lever to automatically button the shirtwaist on the conveyor. Every day I pull the lever about 9,000 times, the same way, the same speed and at the same time. I was working 7 days a week 9 hours a day at this factory. It was hard work for all of us women working. The worst part of this place is that we barely got paid to live. I made only about 90 dollars a week; the boss got 2,500 dollars a week! All he did was sit around yelling at us all day. It was about an hour before my working was over when I heard screaming from above me. The roof over me was black and I felt heat as if it were a hot summer day. I ran to both of the doorways and found that they were locked to keep us working and not running away. Eight other women and I were panicking, I ran for one of the walls because I saw the roof about to cave in. I then I saw what I didn't want to see. As I looked out the window I saw only flames and burning glass. I ran down one floor but there was even worse. I ran back up to my original floor and saw three women jump out the window to their deaths. We were on the ninth floor. Now I was scared even more, I had almost no choice as what to do. I then looked at the burning floor in a matter of minutes I would fall through the floor into the fiery pit of despair. I then saw a group of girls headed to the next floor up. I ran a fast as I could across the burning room to the stairs. I quickly climbed up the stairs to the next floor. At the windows were no flames, but a roof from the building next door, I ran for that window. I looked down; there were dead bodies all over the ground and two fire trucks. I looked over the gap of about three feet. I leaped as far as possible and landed hard on the opposite roof. I ran to the nearest window, smashed it and ran down flights and flights of stairs until I reached the ground. My heart was relieved. I had survived a deadly fire that had taken 150 lives. I was one of the only survivors of the whole company. |