Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1906 — EIGHTEEN KILLED IN CHURCH PANIC [ARTICLE]

EIGHTEEN KILLED IN CHURCH PANIC

Cry of "Fire” Causes Negro Congregation at Philadelphia to Rush to Exit. Philadelphia, Jan. 23. —A wild panic following a loud shriek of “fire” brought death to eighteen colored persons and Injuries to nearly two score of others in St. Paul’s Baptist church, on the west side of Eighth street between Poplar street and Girard avenue. The terrible rush to gain the street was of brief duration, and that more were not killed iii the stampede was probably due to the fact that the church was not crowded. At the time the disaster occurred not more than 300 persons were on the second floor of the building, which, with the gallery, was capable of accommodating tiOO to 700. The fire was a trifling one and was extinguished before the firemen arrived. The smell of smoke added to the panic and despite the heroic work of the Rev. E. W. Johnson, the pastor of the church, who tried in vain to allay the fears of the frightened worshipers, the terror-stricken people made a desperate rush to leave the church, only to be choken up on the narrow stairway. Those in the rear leaped over the prostrate forms of those who fell, and when the rush was over eighteen lay dead on the first floor and stairs of the building.