The Gainesville star. [volume] (Gainesville, Fla.) 1903-19??, 1904-01-05
In Frightful Catastrophe Caused by
Fire in Theatre i'm Chicago.
While Play was in Progress Electric Wire
Set Fire to Stage and Panic Ensued,
Terminating in Most Awful
Avalanche of Death

About six hundred people were killed
In ten minutes wednesday afternoon
during fire In the Iroquols theatsr,
the newest the largest, and as far as
human power could make II, ttfe safest
theater in the city of Chicago EST
mateS OF the dead and injured vary.
Besides this, there are fifty.hve PEG.
pie missing the majority Of whom are
probably among the dead in the
morgues and various undertaking es
Adjustments.
A few Of these people were burned
to death by fire, many we're suffo
Gated By gas, while scores upon scores
were trampled to death in the mao
panic that followed the plunge o.
the frightened audience for the exits
II will be several days before all tn,
dead are known and Identified. Their,
were bodies lying by the dozens Wed
nesday night In the undertaking rooms
in the police stations, and in the hos
pitfalls, from which nearly everything
that could reveal their identity to
those who knew them best Is gone.
Their clothing Is torn to rags or burn
ed to clnders and their faces have been
trampled into an unacceptable pulp
by the heels Of the crowd that tram
pied them down as they fed for safety
During "BIuebeard" Play.
The Are broke out during the second
act of the play, "Mr. Bluebeard," which
was the first dramatic production Civ.
on In the theater since It's erection.
The company, which was very large,
escaped to the street In safety nearly
ali Of them, however, being compelled
TO fee into the snowy streets with no
clothing but their stage costumes.
A Scene Most Horrible.
The theatre is modelled after the
Opera Comique, in Paris, and from
the rear Of each balcony there are
three doors leading out TO passage
ways toward the front OF rhe theatre
Isc II these doorways are at the end
Of the balcony, and one being in the
center. The audience In its rush fol
the outer air seems TO have, for the
greater part, chosen to Zee to the left
entrance, and to attempt to make Its
way down the eastern stairway leading
into the lobby of the theatre,
Outside OF the people burned ant
suifocated by gas, II was In these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss OF NJ
occurred, When the flremen enteret
the building the dead were foun'
stretched In pile reaching from tn
head Of the stairway at least eight fee
from the door back to a point abou
hve feet in the rear of the door.
Frantic Struggle for Life.
Women on top Of these masses Of
dead had been overtaken by death as
they were crawling on their hands and
knees over the bodies OF those who
had died before. Others lay with
arms stretched out in the direction to
ward which lay life and safety, holding
in their hands fragments OF garments
not their own. They were evidently
torn from the clothing of others whom
they had endeavored to pull down ant
trample under foot as they fought fol
their own lives.
As the police removed layer after
layer OF dead in these doorwayS, the
sight became too much even for police
and flremen, hardened as they are to
such scenes, to endure The bodies
were in such an inextricable mass and
SO tightly were they jammed between
the sides Of the door and the walls that
II was impossible &c lift them one by