Persons best in position to know, however, generally agreed that 52 was about the total number killed. The fact that Texarkana was a railroad town and on any given day there may be approximately 200-300 people staying over for a day or several days. The passers through would be hard for citizens to account for. The resulting fire was so complete and thorough that the remains of those burned were nothing more than bones. Undertakers would have been in the best position to know the closest approximate number of victims and it was possibly this group of people who Weeks refers to in his statement above.
Weeks states that only one man escaped as the collapse was occurring.
That was J. B. Gregory. So horrible was the ensuing fire that W. B. Russel, one of the victims, shot himself with his revolver, when the flames began to take him. Zack Few, W. H. Sweeney, Pat Lonergan,Bob Cannon, Hank McCartney, John H. Trigg, J. F. Smith, John Taylor, Pat Hardin, W. G. Cook, John E. Blake, M. V. Flippin, Ben F. James, Walter E. Buron, and TomDailey. Was Recalled by the Finding of a Program of the Opening of the Ghio Opera House. Ghio a mute but forceful reminder of an occurrence which took place nearly a quarter of a century ago in Texarkana and in which Mr. Ghio was a central figure.