Complete story of the Collinwood school disaster and how such horrors can be prevented

Front matter

(ilass Book

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

7 »K 8 rx-ET

Chapter I

Fire discovered in school building at North Collinwood, which is filled with children — Futile efforts of the janitor and a few of the larger pupils to check the flames — Spread of the fire — Alarm sounded ; efiforts of the teachers to march the children out of the doomed structure — Beginning of the panic — Heartrending screams and shrieks alarm the neighborhood as the children find escape cut ofif — Frantic rush for the doors, which are closed and check the maddened little ones in their dash for life and liberty — Children fall in heaps within an inch of safety — Lives crushed out as the frantic and terror stricken trample on the fallen — Vain efforts of the teachers to stay the awful panic — Faces appear at the windows, only to fall back into the raging furnace and become part of the fire itself. . . .33

CHAPTER n.

Men and women rush to the scene — Mothers fall on their knees before the fire and weep and pray — Men curse and fight in their efforts to reach their imprisoned little ones — Pathetic scenes as dying children call to their parents, who are only a few feet away, yet powerless to aid them in their agony — Desperate efforts of the teachers to force open the doors which keep the children prisoners in the burning structure — Thrilling scenes of rescue by ladders — Leaps for life — Drops to death and leaps to unconsciousness — Maimed for life — Blinded by the awful heat

— Heroes develop by the score, yet they can do nothing to save the scores that are perishing before their eyes. .46

Chapter III

Mother saves her child for a moment only to see him die — Lad stretches out arms for aid — Tried to drag boy out but flames conquered — Cleveland fire fighters arrive but are too late — Frantic men and women rush forward to meet it — Floors of building collapse with ominous roar — Burst of flames and sparks shoot out — Flames rage most fiercely in cellar — Work in ruins begins — Blackened forms of children in pinafores found — Bodies placed in rows in morgue — Identifications made bv trinkets. .. .54

Chapter IV

Victims trample comrades to death in vain efforts to escape — Walter Kelley, a newspaper man, who lost two children, says one of rear doors was locked — Exit jammed full of fighting, panic-stricken children — Many killed by being trampled on — Scores rush for windows and several are killed — Caught like rats — Father and mothers, crazed in eft'orts to rescue children — Children rush into fiery furnace — Hallways too narrow to accommodate scholars running out — Three little girls die in jumping 60

Chapter V

Fathers and mothers pray and curse as their children perish — Maddened, they dash towards flames, to be restrained by friends — Force often used — Big man raves, "my babies are in the fire" — Firemen with rakes and shovels turn up blackened bones and skulls and masses of charred flesh — Horror strikes men taking out scarred bodies — Dead forms of children passed to ambulance men — Driven to to morgue — Human charnal house causes men to shudder — Bodies are numbered — Identification made ........68

Chapter VI

Strong men weep as they tell how their children died — Father relates how little daughter burned to death — Child helped mother with breakfast dishes — Waved good-by as she started for school — Sobs on seeing charred babe — "Mister, help me out pleads little girl — Baby hands reach out for help — White ribbons flutter from doors of almost every house — Man toys with penciled paper of dead daughter — Baby cries for sister who was dead 72

Chapter VII

Flames sweep over hall while women stand helpless — Many fall fainting to ground — Water pressure insufficient to send stream high — Firemen's ladders would not reach to top floors — Task not for volunteers but for ambulance men — Police unable to keep back crowds — Girl of ten protects brother of six from fire with shawl until both perish — Few at top of struggling mass saved — Cries for help fearful to hear — Hurl stones through windows — . .81

CHAPTER VIIL

School building inadequate to accommodate all pupils and many studied in the attic — Pupils become panic stricken on sight of smoke — Victims between ages of six and fifteen years of age — Frenzied by screams of crushed and dying many rush into death trap — Save scholars by smashing windows 85

Chapter IX

Pathetic scenes enacted at the temporary morgue — Room murky and stifling with odors of burned stufif and silent save for sobs — Charred feet protrude beneath blankets — Grief written on every face — Mother finds child and bursts into tears while strong men join in weeping — Tags placed on bodies — Some curse, some gaze stoney eyed upon twisted, charred shapes of children before them ; some rave like madmen and some laugh like lunatics 92

Chapter X

Rich woman loses baby — Wealthy and poor, alike in grief, console each other — Bodies taken from morgue as identified — Grief-stricken father fights ambulance driver — Maddened father would throw himself under a train — Child identified by teeth — Screams of despair, wrenched from mothers on finding trinkets of babes — Woman who made boy go to school overwhelmed with anguish, sobbing and shrieking — Crowd sways in sympathy — Grandfather kisses girl's feet ' ' 110

Chapter XI

Teachers tell of horrors — Attack made on janitor, and police guard is set — Tales of the survivors — Children fall and others topple over on them — Crush terrible — Door said to be usually open, but this time fastened at the top — Few fire drills held and smoke and flames quickly put children into panic which meant death 120

Chapter XII

Girl who discovered fire tells investigators she told janitor of the blaze and says she opened door — Janitor asserts building was not overheated — County prosecutor listens to testimony to find whether or not there was a criminal act — Door found closed — Never told to ring fire alarm — X( boys seen smoking in the building, but girls were plaving : ^ 128

Chapter XIII

Teachers tell of attempts to save pupils and why they are unsuccessful — Flames leap over their heads in mad scramble for door and children pile up in hall — Blaze tells bell is not drill gong — Principal denies there was rubbish in closet where fire started — Boy tells thrilling experience — Smoke and heat strike terror into children — Fire blocks stairs, but heroine teacher waits until last — Crowds of men to the rescue but work is checked by fire 138

Chapter XIV

Misery, hopelessness and g-loom reign everywhere in ColHnwood — Little children make big sacrifices — Three babies lost from one home — Two white faced girls cling to sobbing mother trying to comfort her for loss of child — Bravery of girl — Pall over every house — Frantic women tear hair — Small children pushed beneath pile — Narrowness of corridor catches scholars in pen — Teacher dying amid corpses — Exciting race made by firemen — Boy gives life to save others — Ambulances do good work 149

Chapter XV

Mothers cry for children and beg for help — Teachers pursued in rage by bereaved — Child thrown from window — Girl saved by sickness — Boy says stairs crashed on crushed scholars — Baby cried for *'papa." 177

Chapter XVI

Women show courage — Tiny girl holds out hand for help in vain — Hands burned trying to save children — Lad identified by a ring — Boy who aids family perishes in the fire — Lake Shore officials aid — Scream for help which does not come — Drags little daughter from heap of dying; .... 182

Chapter XVII

Dead in fire disaster buried — Entire village in mourning — Hearses line all streets of village — Old man weeps on seeing white hearses pass, although he had none in the building to die — Full realization of horrible disaster comes with funerals — One of saddest services was held for Janitor Hirter's children, three of whom died in fire — Police guard him, but none molest man while he is burying his dead — Father bowed' with grief and mother mourns for her dead — Child shows her love for plavmate 190

Chapter XVIII

Stumps of unknown children are buried — Blackened bodies of unidentified dead are placed in one big grave and mourned for by many weeping mothers — Flag placed at church entrance and candles are put at head of coffin — Sixteen white coffins in a row — Service held for 12 at once — Hearses too few to care for dead — Two women faint — Hundreds gathered in sorrow 197

Chapter XIX

Caskets lie in tiers in ambulances — Hearse after hearse passes down the dismal streets — ^lany dazed by the tragedy pay no heed to funeral corteges — Mothers and fathers bowed in anguish — Three caskets with a son and two daughters lie in a row 206

Chapter XX

Safety of all school children in the land rest in the strict enforcement of the building laws — Better schools urged for protection of pupils — Lower buildings, fire proof construction, wide stairways, fire escapes separated from the buildings themselves and opening off every room sought — School houses must be carefully and regularly inspected — Employes must be watched — Fixing responsibility and Dunishment of negligent believed to be a preventive. . .212

Chapter XXI

Newspapers comment on the disaster — Tall buildings are decried — Horror should teach lessons and lead to improvement of buildings — Disaster might have been prevented, it is thought — Probe should go deep and every provision made to empty schools quickly and prevent panic — Fact should be drilled into the minds of a people prone to forget 221

Chapter XXII

Lack of discipline and unreadiness to meet emergency says one paper — Fancied security leads to laxity and danger — Furnaces a deadly peril — Close watch should be kept on heating apparatus — Automatic doors urged, to open when fire gong sounds — Thousands of structures thought to be defective and in need of reconstruction 228

Chapter XXIII

Model school house designed to save children from death in fire — Towers at each corner arranged so that there can be exits from each room — Emergency exit in center — Stairways are not winding but straight 237

Chapter XXIV

Lest we forget the Collinwood horror we should prick our memory to demand better schools — Children depend on us for protection which it is our duty to give — Plans should at once be made to prevent other such holocausts and death of innocents 240

CHAPTER XXV. List of the dead in terrible Collinwood school fire 247

CHAPTER XXVL

Earthquake and fire descend upon San Francisco and the Surrounding cities of California, causing enormous loss of life and property— Shock of death comes in the early dawn — People flee from their beds in terror to face crashing walls — Heaving earth shatters gas and water pipes, releasing noxious fumes and kindling countless fires in the ruins of the once beautiful "Fairy city of the Golden Gate" — First shock followed by worse terrors — Furious flames sweep over doomed citv — Firemen baffled bv lack of water — Dynamite used in vain — Dead abandoned to the advancing cyclone of fire — night falls on a scene rivaling Dante's "Inferno" — Vandals and ghouls appear — Looting and rioting add to hellish scene — Police powerless ; troops called — Corpses everywhere — Man's utter helplessness demonstrated — Denizens of foreign quarter battle with fury of fiends — Mobs tight at ferries, while dreary procession of refugees trails southward to escape 269

Chapter XXVII

Wave of flame greets Chicago theater audience — Few realize appalling result — Drop where they stand — Many heroes are developed — Dead piled in heaps — Exits were choked with bodies — Survey scene with horror — Find bushels of purses 284

Chapter XXVIII

Terrible Boyertown fire caused by the explosion of lamp used to light scenes in amateur theatricals — Scores burned to death, suffocated or crushed in mad panic to escape.. . .294

Chapter XXIX

Boat, the General Slocum sinks in river in New York and more than 1,000 perish — Women throw babes overboard and leap after them — Life preservers rotten or are filled with lead — Bodies washed ashore for days — Jail sentence for offenders — Sundav School picnic ends in terror and death .' 300

Chapter XXX

Thrilling incidents of terrible disasters of historv and horrible loss of life '. 304

CHAPTER XXXI. The Johnstown Flood 316

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

Amid sobs and groans, from white, trembling lips comes the story of the fearful disaster at North Collinwood, Ohio, where 172 innocent children and two heroic women teachers went down to death in the ruins of the schoolhouse, which was swept by flames. To tell the awful story in cold type gives but a faint idea of the horror of it all ; yet, in order that the lives of other children and other teachers may be protected and safeguarded, it must be told in detail, and the human suffering and anguish that came to men, women and children through this fire painted, as only those on the spot can paint it, pictured in words that thrill.

By experience we learn. Some day our children will be safe when once inside the schoolhouses of the country — but not until public officials realize that many of the buildings are now but tinder boxes, ready to flare up at the faintest spark of fire, and destroy all who are unfortunate to be caught within the walls. As the author of this work has well said, this great disaster has hastened the day when all of our public buildings — theaters, halls and schoolhouses — will be safe ; when we can rest secure while our loved ones bend over their desks, or watch a mimic world depicted on the stage. God speed the day when soul-harrowing tragedies of the sort enacted in North Collinwood shall be a thing of the past !

In presenting this book to the public the publishers do so with two thoughts uppermost in their minds. First is ♦^he thought that the details of the ereat holocaust should

26 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE

be perpetuated in another way than only in the minds of the parents of the children who lost their lives, in order that those who read may realize to the utmost that "we know not the hour of our end;" and second, that school officials and building department heads throughout this broad land may realize that upon them rests a fearful responsibility. In their keeping are hundreds of thousands of human lives — lives of men, women and children, who, believing that the buildings are safe, blindly trust themselves in the structures that have been erected for public gatherings.

Lessons like the one from North Collinwood sink deep into the hearts of men. It is an old saying that "we never learn except by bitter experience" — God knows the officials of North Collinwood have learned by sad and bitter experience, experience that has robbed scores of homes of all the happiness it ever will know, that only by constant watchfulness and perfect building methods can safety be obtained. Without going into detail as to the responsibility for this horror — that will be left for those directly concerned to determine — it is enough to say that someone is to blame for the fearful loss of life and the resultant misery that has made heavy the hearts of thousands.

It is the aim of the publishers to give this book an educational value that will secure for it a place in the library of every home in the land, and to fill its pages with information and word pictures that will live forever, carrying to the heart of every man and every woman the necessity of protecting the little ones from the dangers seen and unseen, that threaten them on every hand. It will bring home to the thoughtless the fact that "in the midst of life we are in death," and that only by securing perfection in

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 27

the art of building can we properly protect the people from possible harm.

The book contains not only the story of the Ohio disaster, but the history of other great disasters, thus making it a valuable reference work for the student. It portrays in vivid manner the causes that lead to great fire panics and shows at a glance the large number of human lives that have been lost in the various disasters in the several corners of the world. Ranking next to the Iroquois theater fire in Chicago, in which hundreds of children lost their lives — and for which it has been decided in the courts that "no one was to blame" — the North Collinwood disaster will remain always in the minds of man as one of the greatest horrors of the century.

As this work is the only authentic and permanent record of the horror, wdiich desolated scores of homes and brought a thrill of sympathy to the great, glowing heart of the world, the publishers hope and believe that the work will prove of great benefit, in that it will point out, in tales of the utmost pathos and dramatic intensity, the necessity for building our schools and our other public buildings so perfectly that fires cannot start in them, or, if fires do start, so fireproof that nothing but a small blaze, dangerous to no one, will result.

As this book goes to press thousands of building inspectors, thousands of high officials and thousands of school directors throughout this broad land are moving with one accord along the line of making the buildings safe, and closing those which are found wanting in the proper appliances. One lesson of the North Collinwood description has startled the world. It is to be hoped that no second lesson will ever be needed !

THE PUBLISHERS.

Author's Preface

For generations the awful holocaust at North Collinwood, where 172 children and two teachers lost their lives in the destruction of the school building by fire, will be remembered with feelings of horror. It w^as a veritable carnival of death. Caught like rats in a trap, without a chance to escape, the hapless victims were trampled under foot, smothered, and then half consumed by the fiery flames that swept over them.

The story, sad and thrilling in the extreme, w^ill deal wMth the vain fight made by the victims to escape the awful fate that awaited them, of the desperate efforts of heroic men and women to snatch from the jaws of death their own loved ones, as well as the loved ones of other fathers and mothers, and of the shocking scenes that were enacted in the pretty little suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, on the 4th day of March, 1908. Standing beside the red-hot embers of the schoolhouse and watching weeping men draw from the ruins shapeless masses that were once laughing, happy boys and girls, I witnessed a scene so terrible that my pen almost refuses to write the sickening story of the disaster that brought grief to every family in the little village, and which depopulated the town of young people.

Fathers and mothers all over this broad land weep with the bereaved parents and bow their heads in shame to think that in this trreat and gflorious countrv such a

AUTHOR'S PREFACE 29

slaughter of innocents could be possible. Long before the smoke had lifted from the funeral pyre, long before the last charred body had been dragged from the red hot ruins, long before the last victim had been laid in old mother earth, town and state officials were at work to place the blame for the disaster. That blame rested on someone was certain, but who was the guilty man? That was the c|uestion.

Fixing the blame would not bring back from the grave the 172 human beings that went down to death when flames shot through the handsome building, nor would placing upon the shoulders of an individual, or upon the shoulders of a group of individuals a burden of guilt, assuage the grief of the stricken parents, nor dry the tears of the people of the country, to whom the horror was brought home with startling directness as they thought of their own loved little ones in the crowded schoolhouses of the cities and the towns.

From m<^n and women who were on the spot before the flames had claimed their toll of death and before the last despairing shriek of the last child to die had chilled the blood of ?11 the spectators I have obtained most of my facts, and to them I am deeply indebted for the vivid scenes described in this book, which is destined to be a permanent and historically correct record of the most awful and sickening disaster ever known in the history of the state of Ohio. The task of assembling the vast amount of data is not easy, as every line tells of death and human suffering, the equal of which is not often written in history. True, there have been other great disasters, with fearful loss of human life, but in this case those who went down to death were children, most of them on the very

30 AUTHOR'S PREFACE

threshold of life. They had everything before them, no regrets back of them — their pathway to honor, fame and riches was broad and smooth, yet in the twinkling of an eye they were laid low by the fiery hand of Death, and the hopes of their parents shattered in an instant.

While it is the intention of the author to make this work a fitting memorial to the dead, and to record the details of the tragedy in words that will live forever in the minds of thousands of sorrowing persons all over the country, it is his hope and firm belief that great good will at the same time be accomplished, in that the needs of other schoolhouses from one end of the land to the other will be shown, and the necessity of at once taking steps to remedy the defects, and to render such loss of life in case of fire impossible, pointed out.

Indeed, even as these words are written, officials of cities, towns and villages in every portion of the United States, aye, even in Europe, are at work, with breathless haste, making such changes in the school buildings as will give the children there a chance for their lives should flames sweep the structures.

To the many persons who have aided me in preparing this work, w^ith a heart full of sorrow for the bereaved parents, and a prayer for the dead, I dedicate this book to the memory of the victims of the fire which brought the nation to its senses and forced it to realize that hundreds of its schoolhouses are little else than fire traps, ready always to claim the -lives of innocent children.

MARSHALL EVERETT.

North Collinwood, Ohio.

MOTHER DRAGGED FROM CHILD.

SHE STROKES BURNING HAIR OF DAUGHTER SHE COULD NOT SAVE.

One of the faces in the wall of those who blocked up the rear door of the Lake View School was that of Jennie Phillis, ag^ed fifteen years. Mrs. John Phillis, who lives a few door:- from the school, was one of the first to get to the fire. She lecognized Jennie immediately. Volunteers had formed a cordon about the door, but the agonized mother broke through and rushed into the passageway.

"Oh, Jennie ! Please come out !" begged the mother.

*T can't, ma. Oh, help me, if you can !"

The woman seized both of her daughter's hands and pulled with all her strength. She could not, however, drag Jennie out from the crush. She turned to the men who were in the passageway and begged them to help her. One man pulled with the mother at Jennie's arms, but they could not move her.

"It's no use, ma," said the girl, "I've got to die !"

Mrs. Phillis became resigned to her daughter's fate. She held the girl's hand and the two talked for some minutes together. The fire crept up through the mass of heads. A tongue of it blew over Jennie's head. It began to scorch her hair. Then the mother thrust her bare hand into the flames. She stroked her daughter's hair and kept the fire away as iong as she could.

"Oh, thank you, ma," breathed the dying girl. It was the last she said. They dragged the mother from out of the smoke and flame. It was found that her hand with which she had stroked the fire from her daughter's head was burned to the bone.

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Chapter I. The Story Of The Fire

FIRE WRECKS BIG SCHOOL— CHILDREN PERISH BY THE SCORE.

In a horror without parallel in the history of American schools, 172 children and two women teachers lost their lives when Lake View School, North Collinwood, Ohio, burned on the morning of March 4, 1908. Ten minutes after the fire was discovered half the families in the pretty little suburb of Cleveland were in mourning, and the nation, informed by telegraph of the soul-stirring disaster, was in tears.

Three little girls coming from the basement saw smoke. Before the janitor sounded the alarm a mass of flames was sweeping up the stairways from the basement.

Before the children on the upper floors could reach the ground floor egress was cut off and they perished.

It was all over almost before the frantic fathers and mothers who gathered realized that their children were doomed.

School officials believed at first that an incendiary started the fire. They were forced to that conclusion after eliminating all other possible causes.

There was no gas in the building. No heating pipes ran through the lumber closet under the stairs where the fire started. There were no electric wires in the closet.

With the call for fire engines calls for ambulances were sent in. Every ambulance in the eastern end of Cleveland was pressed into service and wagons were used to haul the dead.

Rescuers were present by the hundreds, but they could not save the Hfe of one of the children jammed in solid masses, as in the case of the Iroquois theater fire, Chicago, at the foot of the stairways.

The victims ranged in ages from six to fifteen years, and the story of their fate is one of the most heartrending that the world has been called upon to heed.

From the minute that the fire bell clanged out the alarm, the doom of the children was sealed.

The building was a fire trap. It was insufficiently provided with fire escapes. It had but two exits, one of which, at the critical hour, was found to be barred.

There was lax discipline in the institution. And, finally, the fire department of the village was utterly unable to cope with the situation.

Panic was primarily responsible, however. Had the 300 little ones been able to preserve their presence of mind scores that went down in the roaring flames might have escaped in safety. As it was, dozens were crushed to death before the flames reached them in the terrified rush for safety.

Dozens more were killed in frantic leaps from windows. The remainder were swallowed up in the flames, carried down into the raging furnace in the cellar of the building fifteen minutes after the first alarm was sounded, and while agonized parents dashed helplessly about on the outside, restrained by force from dashing in when the floors of the burning building collapsed, further rescue became absolutely impossible.

There was no panic at first. The children on the first fioor passed out safely. They supposed it was only the regular practice until they entered the lialls. Then they saw the smoke rising from the front stairs. They cast frightened glances at it, but maintained order.

Many of the children on the third floor were saved. The flames spread so quickly that by the time the children on this floor had entered the hall the smoke and sparks were coming up the stairs in great puffs.

Miss Laura Bodey, who had charge of the single room on the third floor, kept her head and started the children down the stairs.

When they reached the second floor the flames rushed upon them.

Miss Bodey called to the children to follow her. She led the way to the fire escape through a room on the second floor.

Most of the children obeyed her and were saved. Some, however, had broken away and fled down the stairs. They were caught in the deathtrap.

Nearly all the children on the second floor perished. Their teachers led them to the stairs in the rear, for the front stairway was enveloped in flames.

At the sight of the fire the children took fright at once. They started pellmell down the stairs and into the narrow passage that led to the outside doors.

The first few escaped. Some of those following tripped on the stairs and rolled to the bottom.

Others behind them ran over the tangle at the bottom of the stairs and crowded into the passageway, fell over the prostrate bodies and made the confusion greater.

Then the children began dropping over the banisters to get to the passage. Those who had fallen on the stairs began to get up and in an instant the entrance to the passage was blocked. Not yet had the flames spread to the passage.