Napoleon, OH School Destroyed By Fire, Mar 1908

A LUCKY CHANCE SAVES CHILDREN.

IMMENSE UNION SCHOOL BUILDING AT NAPOLEON DESTROYED JUST AS PUPILS WERE ASSEMBLING.

DESTRUCTION IS SWIFT AND COMPLETE.

Toledo, O., March 10 -- The Union school at Napoleon, O., the largest building of the kind in the state, which was completely remodeled only last April and had cost the county $110,000, was destroyed by fire this morning. A repetition of the Collinwood horror was possibly averted by only a quarter of an hour in the time of the starting of the fire, as the children werer on their way to school and some were playing in the yard when it was discovered. At 9 o'clock, when the school pupils should have been in their seats, the main part of the building was a mass of flames.
Superintendent BEMER and Principal WHITE were the only persons in the building when the fire broke out, the other teachers not having arrived. The two men ran to the stairway leading to the attic and were driven back by a shower of sparks and a great volume of smoke. The fire had evidently caught from a defective flue of the furnace chimney, where it ran up through the attic.
Before the fire department could get a stream on the building the flames had gutted the attic, dropped to the floor below, attacked the east wind and was roaring up the big central tower. The bell fell inside of fifteen minutes. The building is a total loss.
Eight hundred pupils were enrolled in the school. The big building had fifty-four rooms and two engine rooms. It was recently rebuilt and was formally opened last April.

The Fort Wayne Sentinel Indiana 1908-03-10
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!