Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1908 — PITILESS FLAMES [ARTICLE]

PITILESS FLAMES

They Scorch and Shrivel Over Eight Score Children. FRIGHTFUL SCHOOL SACRIFICE Fire Drill Proves Unavailing in the Face of Closed Doors. PAMIO DOES ITS AWFUL WORK While Penned in a Raging Furnace the Floors Fall with the Victims. Recovery of the Corpse* a Grewsome Task, bat Rapidly Effected Cleveland Suburban School the Scene of the Tragedy. Death to one of Its most terrible forma claimed between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy school children of the North Collinwood school, Wednesday, to the village of Collinwood, an eastern suburb, of Cleveland, 0., when the school building. catching fire from a defective furnaee in the basement, was gutted to the space of half an hour. Children Stricken with Panto. Starting about 9:30 a. m. the fire gained tremendous headway before its presence was noted. The fire drill was Inaugurated at once, and those in the rooms on the lower floors quickly moved out of the building. But when the panic-stricken little ones in the upper rooms attempted to make their way to the stairway the jam of uncontrolled and fear-stricken children grew until but few were able to extricate themselves, and they perished almost within reach of safety. It Was All Over in Three Hours. Within three hours after the start of the fire It had burned itself out, and the work of recovering the bodies proceeded. The village fire department had only two engines, and neither was •t all effective in stemming the flames. The school was a two-story and attic brick building, constructed about six years ago. It was over-crowded with pupils, and it was found necessary to utilize the attic for those of the ages between six and eight Nearly all the children were killed in the mass at the first floor door. Both Lower Doors Closed. There was but 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 to the rear. Both of these doors opened Inward, and both were closed. The pupils ranged in age from six to fifteen years, and only about eighty are known to have escaped unhurt. Of the remainder of the living many are badly burned or wounded ’and there will doubtless be deaths among these, while six children are still unaccounted for.

••IN ONE RED BURIAL BLENT” * Support* Barn Through and the Floors Go Crashing Down. Burning through the joists of the first floor the flames passed upward until all three floors crashed Into a smoldering pile in the basement. After the fire had practically burned itself out the work of rescuing the bodies was begun by firemen, and railroad employes from the Lake Shore shops. The railroad company turned over one of its buildings nearby to be used as a temporary morgue, and thither the charred and broken little bodies were removed as fast as they could be dug from the ruins. Within five hours probably nearly all had been recovered. They were placed In rows in the Lake Shore shop. Identifications wen made only by means of clothing or trinkets. The fir* had swept away nearly all resemblance to human features in the majority of instances. Distracted parents soon began to gather and the Work of identification of the blackened and mangled corpses began. The ffrewsometask of taking out the blackened corpses and bits of human remains wa? one of horror. A line of rescuers was formed, backed by half a dozen ambulances. As the bodies were untangled from the debris they were passed along to the stretchers and thence loaded in the ambulances. At the temporary morgue to the Lair* Shore shop the scene* became fourfold In the Intensity of human suffering a* fathers, mothers, brothers •ad sitters passed up and down the Mass formed of on* hundred and slx-ty-fiv* corpse*. To help identification tiio bodies Were numbered an they •were reeehed at th* morgu*. The first identification was mad* by the

mother of Nels and Tommy Thompson aged six and nine years, respectively. The heads and arms had been burned from both bodies, but the mother recognized the shoes on their feet And so the disheartening work went on, accentuated now and then by a piercing shriek or plaintive moan as a loved one was recognized by clothing or token, such as ring or necklace.