Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-02-21
An Alarm Of Fire Fills 4
School With Terror.
Fourteen Children are Crushed
and Trampled to Death.
Grief Stricken Parents Search
ing for Their Little Ones
at the Morgue.
NEW YORK, Feb. 20.

New YORK. Feb. 90.
An outbreak of fire under the stairs on the
second floor of the schoolhouse attached to
| the Roman Catholic Church of the Most
HOLY Redeemer at 3.I5 O'Clock this after
noon was the cause of an appalling accident,
no less than IA children losing their lives.
| Over 700 scholars, mostly children of the
poorer classes residing in that neighborhood,
| rangingf from to ii years Of age, attended
the school and were in their class rooms
when the alarm of fire was raised, which re-
suited in fearful panic.
| The removal of the children on the fourth
floor commenced quietly enough and was
progressing rapidly when one of the sisters
of charity in charge of the class Of girls
| tainted from excitement Immediately the
class was thrown into confusion and rush
was made for the hallway. On the stairs,
which was already crowded. the panic en-
sued and the deadly crush took place. While
the children were piling one on top OF the
other the railing of the stairs broke and the
mass of struggling children was precipitated
to the floor below. There the police and fire.
man with some passing citizens rushed in
and found them packed four or five deep.
Six were taken out dead from the bottom;
| eight more died Immediately after, making a
total of IA. Large number of others, who
were carried to the surrounding tenements
of the depsely populated neighborhood, were
reported dying.
| The excitement when the news of the ter
rible catastrophe spread was fearful. and
great throngs of excited people blocked the
streets surrounding the school. The follow
| ing is list of the dead as far as the police
returns now show: Minnie lister, 9 years
| old; Mary Habernecht, years; Mary Ann
| IIapp, years; Minnie Truhe. 10 years !;
| Josephine MARI, Z years; Mary Brecht, s
years Lena Brecht, 9 years; Lizzie Nah
etyicki, 6 years Theresa Katzner, IL years ;
Barbara Fletcher, 8 years. Louisa FloreD,
years, was taken out alive and died in St.
Francis Hospital A girl apparently years
| old and another about 8 years, are both I'M
| identified.
The injured are Rudolph Mandel, years
| old, was taken out unconscious and removed
to the convent of Notre Dame Sisters, ad-
joining the school, and is supposed to be dy-
ing. He had been trampled under foot by
the rushing crowd. A boy. name and age
unknown, was taken out into an adjoining
| store.
The school building is five stories high,
very shallow and fronts on 4th street. Its
near wall stands against the German Cstho-
lie church of the Most Holy Redeemer in 3rd
street, of which it is an adjunct. On the east
side is the convent of Notre Dame Sisters,
who have charge of the school. Father
Hespelen is school director. Five hundred
girls, under II, and and two hundred boys
attend the school. and they were all in their
classes when the panic occurred.
| The building, by reason of its shallowness,
| is peculiar and survey of it shows that
every precaution for safety in the school had
been disregardcd. On four floors there are
nine class rooms, opening into two railways.
with stairs running east and west, reaching
either end OF the building. Through the
class rooms access can be had to either stair
way, but the hall and stairs are separate.
The class-roOms are closely packed with
benches and seats. In nearly every room
the doors open inward, and there is only one
door in a room to afford egress for from 80 to
so children, mostly young girls, and the
doors are only two and a half feet wide The
stairways are likewise narrow, and at the top
of the highest flight there is stout wooden
gate, not easily moved. Actual measure
ment showed that the inward opening door
came within eleven inches of the
end of the nearest benches, hardly affording
room to squeeze through. The backs of the
benches were within "a inches of the rear
walls. The stove blocked all progress at the
junction of the passage way and the centre
aisle between the row of benches.
The fire started in a closet under the stairs
| on the second floor. 1t amounted to nothing.
but when first seen filled the hall and stairs
with smoke. Sister Apromia, who was about
to send child home opened the door of her
classroom and was met by gust of smoke
| through which the flames could be seen.
| Hastily shutting the door she ran 70, nail
of water, sternly commanding the pupils to
remain quiet. She was too late with the
water. and hurriedly marshaling her scholars,
marched them in safety out. The alarm by
| this time spread through the school and sim
| liar precautions were taken in each class.
| room. The boys in some classes became I'M
rulv. but were kept in hand by great effort.
Exit being impossible by the east stairs
which was filed with fire and smoke. the
march was taken through the class-rooms
on each floor to the west side in comparative
order. In half minute after the alarm had
been given half of the children were in the
street. just at this time the sister in charge
| of the girls class on the second floor tainted.
This was the one mishap pointing to the pre-
cipitate, and with wild cry of fear the 20 or
so young girls thus left without le a1er
rushed through the door into the already
crowded hallway, throwing the throng
| there into confusion. The shrieking chill
dren crowded and rolled and fell down.the
stairs together, the foremost and weakest
either falling or ubeing pushed down and
trampled upon. Others, in struggling over
them, formed an impossible barrier on the
stairs. From the street, Policeman Henry
Scheck, on duty at the school but who had
gone into church, rushed in with the citizens
and fremen. Meantime. the stru gglinp mass
on the stairs, receiving fresh additions from
above, swelled in their sight Suddenly the
hand rail and board petition guarding the
stairs on the exposed side, crushed in, and
the mass of dead and dying children fell to
the narrow hall below. filling it four and five
deep. A score Of hands were quickly at
work, pulling the children out, and as MANY
more by main force kept back the crowd still
coming from above. The slight fire on the
other side had been promptly extinguished,
and many Of those still on the upper floors
were helped out through the windows BY the
fremen. From the heap of children in the
west hall. six dead girls from seven to ten
years of age, were taken out and carried into
the church, where they were laid in front of
the chancel, and Intellectual attempts to re-
susicate them we're made. mother forced
her way despite the large force of police
which filled the sacred building, and on rec
ognizing her child, fell upon it with
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