The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1897-01-22
| THE DALLAS HOLOCAUST
Fifteen Children Perished in
the Flames.
BURNING OF ORPHANS HOME
Further Particulars OF the Terrible
AHair-Flames Spread So Rapidly
Little Ones Could Not Be Saved.

Further Particulars OF the Terrible
Ahair-Flames Spread So Rapidly
Little Ones Could Not Be Saved.
Dallas, Tex, Jan. 19.-Fifteen little
boys are dead as result of last nights
fire at the Buckner Orphans Home, and
nine others are seriously burned and
badly crushed. Three of the injured,
it is thought, cannot recover. The
awfulness of the holocaust was not fully
realized until today.
The fire, which commenced at 10
O'Clock Friday night and ragged until
the boys dormitory was destroyed, did
not cool enough for search for the
bodies in the ashes until early this
morning. At that time it was thought
only five children had been burned to
death. When the ashes had cooled
enough to admit of a search, scores of
sympathizing friends and neighbors be-
gan the sad task of finding the bodies
of the five whom it was known had
perished. The search had been hardly
instituted when the terrible truth that
there were more than five bodies in the
ashes appeared. The search continued
until dawn, when fifteen bodies had
been found.
When the fire was discovered, the
alarm spread through the dormitories,
and 800 children rushed hither and
thither in the widest fright and panic
stricken confusion. The halls, porches
and stairway landings were thick with
the scorching smoke. The building
had stood for a number of years, and
was as dry as kindling, and burned
with fearful rapidity. The wind was
blowing from the southest, which drove
the fire into the building. 1t was eat
ing it's way to the three principal stair
ways as soon as it was discovered, and
the little fellows on the second floor OF
the west wing were cut off from any
avenue of escape except the windows.
This was where ITO boys, between the
ages of and IA, were asleep in their
dormitories, many of them being up
stairs, but they were the larger ones,
the smallest children being quartered
on the lower floor, with view to such
an emergency. Even with the precau-
ton, some of the smaller ones were
burned to death, not being awakened
ny tIIC dIdILu, VI DClllS LII SuOIl a NC-
moralized state from childish terror
that they did not know how to make
their way out.
Those with the most presence of
mind followed the larger ones, who
jumped through the windows. A few
had the presence of mind to save enough
of their clothes, but most of them es-.
capped in their night garments.
The pahic-stricken little ones did not
stop even alter they were taken out of
the burning building, but fled in their
wild terror, as if some nameless horror
were pursuing them, across mud and
fields in every direction. Some went
to neighbours houses as. far as half
mile away, and others were found stag
gering along the lanes in their scant
nightclothes, crying as if their little
hearts would break.
The people from the neighborhood
found the little fellows who had not
reached shelter by their cries, and
brought them back to the home.
The loss on the buildings and con-
tents is light, about $4,000, with in
surance. The home will be rebuilt.