The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1904-01-06
OVER 500 PERISHED.
FEARFUL LOSS OF LIFE CAUSED BY
FIRE AND PANIC IN CHICAGO
THEATER.

Many Victims Trampled to Death and So
Disfigured That Identification Is
Impossible.
CHICAGO, Dec. 30.-About $50 per-
sons were killed this afternoon during
fire in the IroQuois theater, the new
est, largest and, as far as human
power could make it, the safest theater
in Chicago. Estimates OF the dead
vary. The police count of dead is
536. The estimate of the newspapers
is 562. Besides this there are IS peo-
pie missing at midnight, the majority
OF whom are probably among the dead
in the morgues and various undertake
ing establishments. Eghty-six of the
dead have been positively identified,
and " others are known to be injured.
Few OF these people were burned to
death by the fire, many were sutfo.
Gated by the gas, and scores we're
trampled to death in the panic that
followed the mad plunge of the fright
ened audience for the exits. There
are bodies lying by dozens in under
taking rooms, in police stations and
in hospitals, from which nearly every
thing that could reveal their identity
is gone. Their clothing is torn to
rags or burned to cinders, and their
faces have been trampled into an un-
recognizable pulp by the heels of the
crowd that trampled them down as
they fed for safety.
Accounts of the fire are conflicting.
but the best reason given is that an
electric wire near the lower part of a
piece OF draw scenery suddenly broke
and was grounded. The fire spread
rapidly toward the front of the stage,
causing the members of the chorus to
flee to the scenes with screams of ter.
ror. The fire in itself, up to this time,
was not serious, and possibly could
have been checked had not the ashes.
tos curtain failed to work. AS soon
as the flames first appeared beyond
the curtain man in the rear of the
hall shouted ''6re, fire. and the en-.
tire audience arose as one person and
made for the doors.
Meanwhile doors in the rear end and
in front were being opened, and an
enormous draft was created. The au.
dience, numbering approxim ately 800
became panic-stricken, and the rush
for the exits became terrific. Behind
the people there roared the blaze, and
those in the rear fought frantically to
escape the fire. They fought with des.
peration those before them, and tram
pied under foot the weaker ones, with
out thought of mercy.
Chief Fire Marshal Musham took
personal charge of the fire when he
arrived. He found the theatre ball
comics still occupied by many persons
and he promptly directed the fremen
in raising ladders to the upper exits.
Numbers of the fremen rushed up in
the smoke and brought the people
down, most of them unconscious and
some crushed.
Most of the occupants of the first
gallery were caught in trap. When
the fire burst out they, with one sim
ultaneous run, made for the exits. In
the aisles they fought tooth and nail
and when the iremen reached the ball
cony they found bodies upright,
wedged between chairs like so many
sticks. Some of them were burned to
a crisp, others were sutfocated, while
some, in their frenzy, had leaped over
the balcony rail into the auditorium
and were instantly killed.
The loss Of life was greatest at the
foot of the stairways from the upper
balconies. At that point the bodies
of persons who sought to flee from the
flames were piled fully twelve feet
deep. The bodies were taken out as
rapidly as the men could enter the
smoke-flled corridors and grasp their
awful load.
In the aisles nearest to the doors
the scenes We're narrowing in the ex-
treme. Bodies lay in every conceiv-
able attitude half naked, the look on
their faces revealing some portion of
the agony which must have proceeded
their death. Their were scores and
scores Of people whose entire faces
had been trampled completely of by
the heels of those who rushed over
them, and in one aisle the body of
man was found with not vestage of
clothing, flesh or bone remaining
above his waist line. The entire up.
per portion Of his body had been cut
into mince meat and carried away by
the feet Of those who trampled him.