Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-03-08
CRUSHED TIC. DEATH.

An Alarm of Fire in a New York Paro-
chial school Causes q Panic Among the
little Sch0Iars-The frightened Chill
dren Leap or Fail Down the stairway,
and Sixteen of Them are Killed and Sew
eral Others Seriously Injured-Pitiable
Scenes. 2 sfxy
NEW YORK. February 20.
An outbreak Of fire under the stairs on the
second door of the .school-house attached to
the German man Catholic Church of the
Most Holy Redeemer. on Fourth street, be-
tween Avenue a and First avenue, at 3:15
O'clock his afternoon, caused panic VIII ch
resulted in he death Of fifteen little girls and
the manning Of many others. Over seven
hu ndred sch lars, mostly children of the poor
er classes, ranging from six to eleven years
in age, attended the school n and were in
tne.r class rooms when en- alarm of fire
was given. The sisters quickly marshaled
the ch ldren. aud before half a min
ute hal elapsed half of them had reached
the street, by one stairway. the other
being useless by reason of the fire and smoke.
The otherhafi would have quickly marched
out unharued, but that the sister in charge of
No. class, overcome by the peril of her
charges, swooncd away. This class immedir
ately became panic-stricken, broke away from
all restraint. threw the other rapidly marching
classes into confusion, and all rushed for the
hallway. On the stairs already crowded.
deadly crush took place. The railing. of the
stairs broke, and a mass of struggling children
was precipitated to the floor below. The little
ones fell in Il pack ed mass, one upon another,
from four to tive deep. The police and fire
men, who had already been summarized, ar
rived; but their work of rescue was much
hampered by. the frightened children. who
continued to fall or leap from the stairway,
those. in front be ng erowGcd over the broke
baiustrade by those behind still struggling to
The fire from which the smoke spreao
thro Ugh the building. bringing such terrible
result g to the innocent pupils, was OF most
trivial character. 1t started among a mass of
swecpings in the closet beneath the stairs
lead NJ from the second to the third 1ioor, on
the e;lst side of the sbui.d ng. 1t had been
smoder.ng tor some me, and hid eaten its
way through to the cent r of the partition
wall dIvit-us the hall from the class room in
front, araEhad crept up toward the third floor
ere 3 it discovered. j At this mo
ment visitor called at the school to
see one of the pupils in the fifth
class. which, Is. son the SECOND hoos the
door of which "opens almost opposite
to and within tive feet of the closet in which
the sweepinEs were burning. The visitor
knccked ut tha door, which was opened by one
of the S sters of. Notre Dame, by whom the
school Is conducted. Scarcely had the door
burst out from under the stairway. The sister
hastily shut the door, but not unit / some of he
children in her care had caught sight ofthe
and they ushed 11ladly from the classroorn
Smoke now rolled out of the closetsin z eat vol
nmes, ana n few seconds spread to an parts
Ct the bIi ding and q scene of the widest con-
FMS on enSlIed. .s .,
The school building is five stories h h and
for boys. The rear of the schoal abuts at the
rear of the church of the Holy Redeelner,
which fronts on Third street. here are two.
stairways, one in the east a I'd the other in the
west end OF Il e building. I hese stairways were
about thrf AMI a hall feet WIDE, and opened
almo st at the o.s of the cliss-roams. FIR m
the play-room, i'll the center of the building,
this was approached by Il narrow. dark
assage way. When the girls in the second
class-roOms they had hardly reached the hehd
of the stairs when the boys and girls 1ro Ii the
upper roor we e upon tn I'm. AL frs,ntically
fought to get down the narrow stairway, and
the first were thrown headlongto the bottom.
Then, as the crush came from the hundreds of
floors on the cas- s,deo of the building the bal
ustrade gave way, the balusters going with il,
floor hene ath- ON these others fell until they
were p.led five eet high on top of each other.
Officer Lambert. of the Society for the Pre-.
Nention of Cruelty to Children, happened to he
on East ith street, nearly OPP poslte the school.
when the alarm was given. He says: .
rushsd into the build n, AMI terrible sgt
3 i've LITTLE sir H Th Sf things we're sH serea
ing,and struggling with all their might. by
and we began pulling the poor children ont of
the hallway The cEjes Of m Of the the child en-
faintar. and then ceased altogetfer.'' Ia
Detective Robin on said: The FIRE broke
out und r the st 'irease on the scoord iioe,1',nd
was easi y ext ngui he'd, exam ned the
place, and it seems to ME some n'atches must
have been swr pit with the pap2rs llnde T, tue
starN a and been ignited by tne friction with
the floor" srl50& 3itgaa.f Il ft.sEgg 5ffJ "a.
:, Pe.ieeman Reid sid; ION tnS ieor behind
Other As anickiy as poss be NJ b9 R them
out, and Iass dthsm one by one ihronrh the
We reae he'd the oet6nm we :eia,S upon n len
dead 1t was an;awful s;gEt to see them fysng
there with their blanchel faces. mouth and
eyes vile open, and Their dresses all in d sor,
der One little girl, Minnie Truke. was still
alive. She died. however on the wavito the
eTsr pssed MAS tPs r9 wr rs ,
TO the loiiee station on Filth streetsand First
avenue. where they were laid in \, row on the
iient fled bysorrow- stricken mothers and little
brothers and sisters; and the rernoFaK of eacn
II uermitte by the authorities. 'fS
From the heap of children in the west hall
six deal girls from seven TO .e1 years Of age,
the: were Ia ii in front of @ sanctuary, and
attcn p-S were made to res, '>citate Them.
Mothers forcing the rway in, DIS pitaIthe Urge
p tiful cries. One raco4 nj ed her dead child
AMI f. II upon it with agonizinG shreks. The
policemen and monks turned away. da> O at
the srectacfe. ConveymceS arriving, the
bodies were taken up in the arms of the officers
and carried out A clamoriug shr ekilg.
moaning Ihrong of women. with upl 1T d
hands and st, eem ng eyes followed. MothHrs
finding their miss ng b'iTren still living, fell
upon the knees in the m I'D AMI snow, gi, ing
Il anKS- In the stHti+n house tn, frantic
shrIeks proct"imed the ife lification of each
little dead one. I he rges of the children who
are dead and in ured range between seven and
Twelve ye"rS it}
The scene in the classroom and in the halls
after the pant. was almost indescribable
Torn books and broken school apparat IS, and
fragments of torl clio hes were scattered upon
the tteors. terrible evidence of the wild
struggle of tne children 10 escape from the
building. A survey shows that every rule ofld
pre- aut on for safety inthe school had been
d:sregarded. On tour floors there. are nine
class-rooms, op cning into two hall ways, with
stairs running east and west. reaching either
end of the building. Through the class-reoms
access can be had to eli her stairway, but the
halls and stnirs are sc parated. In nearly every
room the doors open inward and there is only
one door in each room for the e9ress of from
thirty to eighty children, mos thy young girls.
The doors were only two ana haf fe ct wide.
The stairways. likewise wer- narrow and at
the top of the highest flight there 5 st mt
n dfyI cN0f ,nt Gil A.t,