The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-03-29
PANIC IN A SCHOOL.
five Hundred Children Caught In Burn Ing School Building in q Chicago suburt A number Seriously Injured.

l five Hundred Children Caught In Burn- Ing School Building in Chicago Suburb A number Seriously Injured.
 CHICAGO, March 22. - Fire :n the South Evanston public school yester- day caused panic among the pupils. l Several of the children jumped from the fourth floor and were injured. Those whose injuries may prove fatal are: Newell Simmons, head and shoulders injured; Ella Sargent, legs broken; Percy Bradley, inter. | nally injured; Esther Burden, fa- tally injured; Carrie Johnson, burned, | probably fatally; Frank Johnson, fire. man, cut by broken glass; Samuel Mack, congressman, crushed by falling debris.
 The pupils on the second floor of the building were driven by the flames and smoke to the upper stories, whence they were rescued by the firemen. Teachers and pupils were panic-strick- en, and many were knocked down and trampled upon in the rush for the exits After the building was thought to be deserted fireman found ten-year-old Lucy Husteble unconscious on the third floor. She was badly burned and her recovery is doubtful. The build ing, valued at $50. 900, was total loss During the fire the burning building was surrounded by crowd of agonized men and women, whose children were in danger, and who added to the in. tense excitement by striving to break through the police lines and rescue the imprisoned little ones. Miss Foster, a teacher in lower grade, discovered the fire just as the children were pre-. pairing to go out for recess. She had gone to the closet for her hat, and had no sooner opened the door when the flames burst into the room with roar. The children were paralyzed with fear for an instant and made no effort to escape. Then they fell to screaming, ter ran hastily upstairs to the office of F. ". Nichols, the principal, and the panic-stricken pupils followed her, blind with fright. Principal Nichols warned the teachers in the other rooms as soon as he could, and telephoned to the fire department. Before the en- zines arrived, however, the flames had made such headway that the building was past saving.
 In the mean time the greatest excite ment and confusion reigned in the school houses Five hundred children and dozen teachers were trying to break through the front door. The flames soon cut off the hall leading to the other entrance and a rush was made for the other exit There were 200 pupils on the first floor. Most of them ran out to the yard Some of the last to reach the door became terror ized at the sight of the flames raging at their backs and rushed upstairs Some of the pupils gan to the windows in the hallway of the third floor and raised them. The people in the yard shouted to them to remain quiet, but several clambered out on the lodges prepared to jump.
 The scene about the burning build- ing was appalling. The fremen were endeavoring to run life ladders up to the windows while the parents in the yard and streets about the school houses were shouting to the children clinging to the windows to hang on or go back and descend the stairs. Final ly, boy stood up in third story win dow and jumped to the ground, forty feet below. It was Newell Simmons. He fell on his shoulder and was picked up senseless. Almost immediately after ward Esther Burden leaped from an adjacent window on the same floor. Another girl named Sargent jumped, striking squarely on her feet, and sank to the ground with shriek of pain. Physicians say that her right leg is broken and that she may have sus- tained serious internal injuries The firemen rescued several children who were perched on the window lodges ready to drOn