Collinwood, OH Terrible School Fire, Mar 1908

165 CHILDREN PERISH IN FIRE.

PENNED IN BY FLAMES AND JAMMED AGAINST LOCKED DOOR IN COLLINWOOD (OHIO) SCHOOL.

MANY TRAMPLED TO DEATH.

Broke from Fire Line as Flames Swept Up Stairway and a Panic Followed.

INCENDIARISM IS SUSPECTED.

NO WIRES TO IGNITE THE WOODWORK WHERE THE FLAMES STARTED IN THE BASEMENT.

TWO TEACHERS ARE VICTIMS.

Parents Fight with Firemen in Desparate but Vain Effort to Rescue the Little Ones.

Special to The New York Times.
Cleveland, Ohio, March 4 -- In a fire that may have been incendiary between 160 and 170 children lost their lives this morning when Lake View School, in the suburb of Collinwood, burned.
Penned in narrow hallways and jammed up against doors that only opened inward, the pupils were killed by fire and smoke and crushed under the grinding heels of their panic-stricken playmates. All of the victims were between the ages of 6 and 14 years. There were about 310 children in the school.
Two teachers, in vain efforts to save the little ones perished. To-night 165 bodies are in the morgue at Collinwood, of which more than 100 have been identified and 57 are still unidentified. Thirteen children are still unaccounted for, and all the hospitals and houses for two miles around contained children, some mortally and many less seriously injured.
Fire's Origin a Mystery.
What caused the fire is a mystery. There are hints that it was incendiary. There were no wires to cross and ignite the woodwork. There was no rubbish where the flames began, to ignite from spontaneous combustion. All that now seems to be known is that three little girls coming from the basement saw smoke. Before the janitor sounded the fire alarm a mass of flames was sweeping up the stairway from the basement. Before the children from the upper floors could reach the ground egress was cut off and they perished. It was all over almost before the frantic mothers who gathered realized that their children were lost.
With the call for fire engines calls for ambulances were sent in. Every ambulance from the eastern end of Cleveland was pressed into service. Wagons were used to carry off the dead.
Rescuers were present by the hundreds, but they could not save the life of one child, so dense was the jam at the foot of the stairways.
The Lake View School was a three-story structure. Under the stairway in the front of the building was the furnace. Owing to the mild weather there was less fire than usual, and it is certain that the fire did not start there. On the first floor four rooms were in use when the fire started, and the children of this floor escaped with few exceptions. They believed the ringing of the fire gong was the usual fire drill signal and marched out in order. The pupils on the second and third floors became panic-stricken and rushed to death.
Rear Door Was Locked.
The number of pupils was more than normally large, and the smaller children had been placed in the upper part of the building. There was only one fire escape, and that was in the rear of the building. There were two stairways, one leading to a door in front and the other to a door in the rear. Both of these doors opened inward, and it is said that the rear door was locked as well.
When the flames were discovered the teachers, who throughout seem to have acted with courage and self-possession, and to have struggled heroically for the safety of their pupils, marshaled the little ones into columns for the "fire drill," which they had often practiced.
Unfortunately the line of march in this exercise had always led to the front door, and the children had not been trained to seek any other exit. The fire to-day came from directly under this part of the building.
When the children reached the foot of the stairs they found the flames close upon them, and so swift a rush was made for the door that in an instant a tightly packed mass of children was piled up against it. From that second none of those who were upon any portion of the first flight of stairs had a chance for their lives. The children at the foot of the stairs attempted to fight their way back to the floor above, while those who were coming down shoved them marcilessly back into the flames below.
In an instant there was a frightful panic, with 200 of the pupils fighting for their lives. Most of those who were killed died here. The greater part of those who escaped managed to turn back and reach the fire escape and the windows in the rear.
What happened at the foot of that first flight of stairs will never be known, for all of those who were caught in the full fury of the panic were killed. After the flames had died away, however, a huge heap of little bodies, burned by the fire and trampled into things of horror, told the tale.
As soon as the alarm was given MRS. KELLEY ran from her home, which is not far from the schoolhouse, to the burning building. The front portion of the structure was a mass of flames, and, frenzied by the screams of the fighting and dying children which reached her from the death trap at the foot of the first flight of stairs and behind that closed door, MRS. KELLEY ran to the rear, hoping to effect an entrance there and save her children.
She was joined by a man whose name is not known, and the two of them tugged and pulled frantically at the door. They were unable to move it in the slightest, and there was nothing at hand by which they could hope to break it down. In utter despair of saving any of the children, they turned their attention to the windows, and by smashing some of these they managed to save a few of the pupils.
"They could have saved many more," said MR. KELLEY to-night, "if the door had not been locked. Nobody knows how many of the children might have made their way out before my wife reached there if the door had not been locked. If half a dozen men had been there when my wife and her companion arrived at the schoolhouse, perhaps they might have broken down the door, but the two could do nothing, and the flames spread so rapidly that it was all over in a few minutes."
Parents Fight with Firemen.
The suburb of Collingwood contains about 8,000 people, and within a half hour after the outbreak of the fire nearly every one of them was gathered around the blazing ruins of the school house, hundreds of parents fighting frantically with the police and firemen who were busily engaged in saving the lives of the children caught in the burning building and doing their best to extinguish the fire.
The police were utterly unable through lack of numbers to keep away the crowd that pressed upon them, and the situation soon became so serious that a number of the more cool-headed men in the throng took it upon themselves to aid in fighting back the crowd, while others worked to help the firemen and the police.
Among the latter were WALLACE UPTON, who reached the building shortly after the front door had caved in, and disclosed to the horror-stricken crowd the awful scenes that had occurred there. Just in front of UPTON'S eyes was his own ten-year-old daughter, helpless in the crush, badly burned, and trampled upon, but still alive. The fire was close upon her, and if she could not be saved at once she could not be saved at all.
UPTON sprang to help her, and with all his strength sought to tear her from the weight that was pressing her down and from the flames which were creeping close. Although he worked with a desperation of despair, his strength was unequal to the task. He fought until his clothing was partly burned from him and the skin of his face and hands was scorched black. Other men attempted to induce him to move, but he refused until he saw that his girl was dead, and that he could not save her life by sacrificing his own. He then withdrew from the schoolhouse, and, although so seriously injured that he may die, lingered about the place for several hours, refusing to go to a hospital or to seek medical attention.
Flames Spread with Rapidity.
The flames spread with such terrific rapidity that within thirty minutes from the time the fire was discovered the schoolhouse was nothing but a few blackened walls, surrounding a cellar filled with corpses and debris.
The firemen dashed into the blazing wreckage and with their bare hands worked in the most frantic manner with the hope of saving a few more lives. They were unsuccessful, for none was taken alive from the ruins after the floors collapsed.
The greater majority of the little bodies that were taken from the ruins were burned beyond all possible recognition. And it is no small part of the sorrow which is bearing down the people of Collinwood that positive identification of many of the children will never be made.
Piled Against Locked Door.
One of the scenes of horror that attended the fire occurred at the rear doorway of the building before the firemen arrived. This door, like the one in front, opened inward and it was locked. The children were piled up high against it, and when it finally was broken down by their weight and by the fire that had partly burned and weakened it the women who had gathered outside saw before them a mass of white faces and struggling bodies. The flames swept over the aisle, while the women stood helpless, unable to lend a hand to aid the children. Many of the women were unable to withstand the sight and dropped fainting to the ground.
The Fire Department was late in reaching the building, and when it came the apparatus was inadequate and the men were volunteers, there being no paid Fire Department in the suburb. The water pressure was not sufficiently strong to send a stream to the second-story windows. Moreover, the firemen had no ladder that would reach to the third floor. The volunteers did what they could, but withing a few moments after their arrival the task was one for ambulances alone.
After the bodies had been taken to the extemporized morgue in the Lake Shore shops, they were laid in rows of ten. The first identification was that of NELS THOMPSON, a boy, who was identified by his mother, who knew his suspender buckle.
HENRY SCHULTZ, 9 years of age, was known only by a fragment of his sweater.
The third identification was that of IRENE DAVIS, 15 years of age, whose little sister pointed out a fragment of her skirt.
Among those who sought vainly through the Morgue for their children was MRS. JOHN PHILLIS of Poplar Street, whose fifteen-year-old daughter is among the dead. Her attention was called to the fire by her four-year-old son, who called her to come to the window. "and see the children playing on the fire-escape." MRS. PHILLIS ran to the schoolhouse and found her daughter among those pwnned in around the front door. She took hold of her hands, but could not pull her out.
"I reached in and stroked her head," said MRS. PHILLIS, "trying to keep the fire from burning her hair. I stayed there and pulled at her, and tried to keep the fire away from her till a heavy piece of glass fell on me, cutting my hand nearly off. Then I fell back, and my girl died before my face."
DAN CLARK, 8 years old, was identified by a little pink bordered handkerchief in which he had wrapped a new bright green marble. The body of RUSSELL NEWBERRY, 9 years old, was made known by a fragment of a watch chain.
At 10 o'clock to-night it was said that sixty bodies had been identified.
Deputy Coroner HARRY McNEIL, who was to-night in charge of the Morgue in the Lake Shore depot, declared that the faces of nearly all the bodies were so badly burned that it would be impossible to identify many of them. MR. McNEIL said:
"I have many portions of bodies and dozens of hands and feet which have been torn off and burned away, but which cannot possibly be identified. Two of the bodies are of women."
At the office of the firm of architects who designed the building the plan exhibited to-night showed that the doors were originally designed by them to open outward.
The statement that the back door of the building was locked was made by WALTER C. KELLEY, the editor of the sporting department of The Cleveland Leader, two of whose children were killed.
Janitor HERTER could remember lieele of what happened after the fire started.
"I was sweeping in the basement," he said, "when I looked up and saw a wisp of smoke curling out from beneath the front stairway. I ran to the fire alarm and pulled the gong that sounded throughout the building. Then I ran first to the front and then to the rear doors. I can't remember what happened next, except that I saw the flames shooting all about, and the little children running down through them screaming. Some fell at the rear entrance, and others stumbled over them. I saw my little HELEN among them. I tried to pull her out, but the flames drown me back. I had to leave my little child to die."
HERTER was badly burned about the head.
County Coroner BURKE immediately after the fire said: "The constsruction of the school house was an outrage. The hallways were narrow and there was practically only one mode of exit. The children were caught like rats in a trap."
Youth Dies Rescuing Children.
HUGH McILRATH, who was killed in the fire, was the son of CHARLES G. McILRATH, Chief of the Collinwood Police. He lost his life in an effort to save a number of smaller children. When Chief McILRATH reached the burning building he saw his son leading a crowd of younger children down the fire escape. From the bottom of the escape to ground was a long leap, and the children refused to take it in spite of young McILRATH'S efforts. Some of them turned back into the building and McILRATH hastened after them to induce them to come out again, but was caught by the flames before he could do so.
GLENN SANDERSON, a boy 12 years of age, met his death in plain view of a large crowd which was utterly unable to help him. He was on the third floor in the school auditorium in which were a number of pieces of scenery, the floor beneath him was on fire, and young SANDERSON swung from one piece of scenery to another trying to reach the fire escape. He managed to cross the stage about half way when he missed his grasp and fell into the fire.
GEORGE GETZIEN, Superintendent of the local telephone company, was in his buggy not more than 200 feet distant from the school when he saw the fire shoot out from the front of the building. In relating his experience he said:
"I went to the rear door and tried to force an entrance. Aided by Policeman CHARLES WALL, we managed to get in, but both of us were driven out by the fire. There were no children hear the door at that time, as I remember it. We ran around to the front door, but could not force it open. My opinion is that it opened inward. The fire was so hot that within fifteen minutes after I saw the flames I could not remain near the building."
HENRY ELLIS, a real estate dealer, was one of the first to reach the building. With his was L. E. CROSS, Superintendent of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern roundhouse. Together they attempted to rescue some of the children jammed at the rear door, and ELLIS remained at the work until his hands and face were badly burned.
"When I reached the school," he said, "the front door was closed and below I could see the flames coming through the floor. We knew we could save none of the children there, and CROSS and I went to the rear. The door had been broken open and the children lay five or six deep, the fire had already reached them, and I could see the flames catch first one and then another. I saw one girl who chould not have been more than 10 or 11 years old protect her little brother, who was not more than 6."
Fire Caught Them in a Minute.
"He cried for help and clung to her hand. She encouraged him and covered his head with a shawl she was wearing, to keep the flames away. The fire caught them in a minute and both were killed. CROSS and I thought that the work of getting the children out would be easy, but when we attempted to release the first one we found it was almost impossible to move them at all."
"We succeeded in saving a few who wer near the top, but that was all we could do. The fire swept through the hall, springing from one child to another, catching their hair and the dresses of the girls. Their cries were dreadful to hear."
Deputy State Fire Marchal NATHAN FEIGENBAUM made an inspection of the ruins after the fire and to-night declared positively that the doors of the schoolhouse opened toward the inside, and that the rear door was locked when the children reached it. He declared that his investigation had so far failed to establish the cause of the fire.

The New York Times New York 1908-03-05

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SEEK THE CAUSE OF OHIO SCHOOL FIRE.

INVESTIGATORS BELIEVE IS WAS CAUSED BY OVERHEATED BOILER -- JANITOR COLLAPSES.

FIRE STARTED IN CLOSET.

Theory That Little Girls Started the Blaze in Play -- School Board Member Says Fire Incendiary.

Special to The New York Times.
Cleveland, Ohio, March 5 -- Search for testimony to bear out a theory adopted by Fire Chief WALLACE of Cleveland that the fire disaster in the Collinwood school in which 162 pupils and two teachers died yesterday morning, was caused by an overheated boiler, due to lack of water for a considerable time, was made to-day.
FRED HIRTER, the janitor, three of whose children perished before his eyes, was questioned at length by Deputy State Fire Marshals HARRY BROCKMAN and NATHAN FIEGENBAUM. They, with Chief WALLACE and City Building Inspector S. S. LOUGEE, united in the opinion that the lead of 14-year-old ANNA NEUBERT, who first saw the smoke and told her story to-day, should be followed.
The little girl had said she started down a basement stairway, was halted by spirals of smoke, saw a man frantically working at the steam valves of a red-hot boiler, then fled. She came back, she said, and called to HIRTER, whose name she would not use in describing her first sight of a man in the basement, that the building was afire. She said HIRTER was opening the grate of the boiler.
HIRTER told the inspectors his fires were low at 9:30, and that he was working at his boilers when the child called to him. He said also that only non-inflammable lime was in the closet from which flames first sprang. He declared pupils stumbled on the steps leading to the fateful west door, and that their fall caused the jamming of the entrance.
The doors opened outward, he said, and occupied nearly five feet of the ten-foot eight-inch entrance width. Shoulders to the doors caused the blocking of the rush also, in the opinion of the investigators. When HIRTER was asked finally about the condition of the boilers, he collapsed. He will be questioned to-morrow, being unable to talk to-night.
Girders Above Boilers Burned.
The investigators learned that the girders just above the boilers had been burned thoroughly, while timbers elsewhere where charred only. They decided an explosion could not have caused the fire, and that only an overheated boiler and steam pipes, close to the ceiling and improperly protected, could be blamed. That is the basis of the investigation now.
An investigation conducted by the Collinwood School Board, at which a number of survivors of the horror told their stories, brought forth these facts:
That one of the inner doors at the west entrance of the school was closed and fastened while children were piling up against it in the passage; wing partitions in the vestibule narrowed the exit by at least three feet; the flames came first from a closet below the stairway at the east entrance; the closet contained lime and sawdust; three little girls had been found hiding in play in the closet earlier in the morning; there was but one fire escape, and its use never was taught as part of the fire drill.
Escape Cut Off in Few Minutes.
Survivors among the teachers estimate that only two or three minutes passed from the time of the alarm until all escape was cut off. The building was a fair sample of the kind of school construction in use in small towns. The halls and stairways were inclosed between interior brick walls, forming a huge flue, through which the flames shot up with great rapidity.
On the question, much discussed, whether the doors opened inward or outward. Fire Marshals BROCKMAN and FEIGENBAUM examined the doorways to-day and stated later that they were convinced that they opened outward. Whether they were locked the Marshals have not been able to determine. They have testimony on both sides. Janitor FRED HIRTER still insists that the doors were open.
It was at first supposed that the fire came from an overheated furnace or an exploded boiler in the basement of the schoolhouse. It has been established that there was no explosion, and the janitor of the school, HIRTER says, it could not have come from the furnace. Yesterday in Collinwood was comparatively warm beside the last few days immediately preceding it, and HIRTER declares that he maintained the fires at a lower rate than usual throughout the early part of the morning. Fearing he had not sufficiently warmed the building, he was, according to his story, on his way to open the furnace drafts and increase the heat when he was met by the three little girls running from the basement, who told him there was a fire below. These three little girls are now being sought by the police and by the Fire Commissioners. It is considered entirely possible by certain members of the Collinwood School Board that they may have through carelessness started the blaze which cost lives of so many children.
Positive Fire Was Incendiary.
L. R. GARDNER, a member of the School Board, is positive in his assertion that the fire was of incendiary origin. In that portion of the building where it was discovered there are no electric light wires, there was neither waste nor rags, and there was no direct means of creating heat. It is therefore believed by MR. GARDNER and by others that the three little girls may, if they are ever found, throw some light on the cause of the awful tragedy of yesterday.
There were in the building at the time the fire was discovered bbetween 310 and 825[sic] pupils. They were under the control of nine teachers. Two of these are among the dead. The school was overcrowded, and quarters had been provided for the younger children in the attic. Strange as it may seem, more of the pupils escaped from this part of the schoolhouse than from any other.
From the upper floors of the building two stairways offered exit. One of these led to the door in front, the other to the door in the year[sic]. It was at this last place that the lives of the little ones were lost while would-be rescuers stood helpless. The rear door, it is asserted by many, opened, like the front door, toward the interior of the building.
In order to reach this entrance the pupils were compelled to march down a stairway, make the sharp turn in a narrow hall and then pass through the doorway. It was the lack of space in the hall and the quick bend at the foot of the stairs that cost so many lives at this point. When the first of the children fleeing from the fire in front approached this door it was closed.
Principal Says Doors Not Locked.
MISS ANNA MORAN, the Principal of the school, denies that the doors opened toward the inner part of the building, and insists that they were never locked during school hours. She said:
"When the bell rang, I, and I suppose other teachers, thought it was a regular fire drill. Every child in the school has gone out over and over again from the second floor to the open air in one minutee and thirty seconds. You can judge from that how quickly we reached the first floor. When we neared the front door we saw the flames coming up the basement stairs, and without knowing it we led those little children into the very face of the fire."
"It is not true that the doors opened toward the inside, and they were not locked. The trouble was that only one of the double outer doors was open. The other was fastened with a spring at the top. Before the janitor got it open the children had wedged themselves into the vestibule, and the others in a panic stumbled and climbed and crowded over them. It was frightful -- so near safety."
"If I could have turned my line back they would have had some chance on the third floor, but they kept coming down, and we could not stop them or do anything to save them. Men from the outside were trying to pull the children out, but they were crushed so tightly together that no human strength could clear a passageway. Dozens of them died within a foot of absolute safety."
The death roll numbers 161. Of these 131 have been identified at the Lake Shore Morgue.
Digging in the Ruins.
The work of digging in the ruins of the schoolhouse in further search for remnants of children still missing began with the break of day. Dawn found mothers and fathers waiting about the fire-ruined building after having spent the night in an effort to find their children's remains at the extemporized morgue. But little was brought forth during the day that would satisfy their longings, and it is believed to-night that all the bodies in the ruins have been taken out.
Burial of the dead is the burden now confronting those in authority in the little village. Arrangements for the funerals of the victims were discussed to-night at a meeting attended by the Mayor of Collinwood, members of the Board of Education, the clergy, and the undertakers. The idea of having a public funeral of all the dead has been abandoned, though it is probable that where it can be done bodies will be grouped in one church.
To-night the work of removing the identified bodies to their former homes was completed and the undertakers set to work to prepare for the interments on the morrow.
In the homes of the afflicted citizens of the village the weeping parents were sustained by the presence of visiting nurses and women who volunteered to lend such comfort as lay within their power.
The appointment of a relief committee by the Collinwood Board of Trade and Town Council to-day also is designed to care for the bodies of the unidentified dead, as well as assisting the bereaved parents. Should any parent desire to undertake the interment of one of the bundles of human flesh and bones, believing it may he his or her child, the parent will be permitted to do so. The remainder of the bodies will be laid side by side in the cemetery.
The Board of Education of the City of Cleveland to-night ordered all city schools closed to-morrow, and that flags be half-masted on all buildings.

The New York Times New York 1908-03-06

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FINDS CAUSE OF SCHOOL FIRE.

COLLINWOOD CORONER SAYS IT WAS STARTED BY STEAM PIPES.

Cleveland, Ohio, March 10 -- "The loss of the lives of the little children in the Collinwood school fire was absolutely inexcusable," Coroner BURKE declared to-day, after making a thorough investigation into the causes of the fire.
"The poor little children were caught in a veritable trap and held and crushed until burned to death." he said.
"Some one is responsible for this, and should be held."
"I find that the steam pipes caused the fire by being placed too close to the wood of the joists. There is no doubt in my mind that the overheated pipes caused the fire."
"But thw children should have escaped, and would have done so, had it not been for the partition built in the hall at the foot of the stairway. This is what caused their death."
The Coroner said that the building was also deficient in automatic devices for opening of doors.

The New York Times New York 1908-03-11
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!