Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-01-06
HUNDREDS Ole IN FIRE PANIC.
Flames Sweep Theatre, Killing and woundIng
0ne-Thlrd Of Inc Audience.

0ns-Thlrd Of ihe Audience.
Chicago, December 30.-Amid
scenes of the most awful horror a
great number of people, yariousiy
estimated at from 200 to 500, many
of them women and children, were
burned or suffocated or trampled to
death late this afternoon in fire,
which destroyed the new Iroquois
Theatre. The firemen, who were in
the burned building, fixed the num-
ber of dead at from 500 to 600.
More than 100 bodies, charred and
mangled, were taken from the blaz-
ing ruins within an hour from the
time the fire was under control.
Inside the theatre the dead were
corded aud piled up through seats
and aisles like logs of wood.
Hundreds were injured, many OF
them fatally, in the frightful panic
stricken rush for safety when hys-
terical screams and shouts of "Firel'
rang through the theatre, and the
flimsy draperies of the flies fared
and blazed up during the second act
of the afternoon performance of
"Mr. Bluebeard."
According to the firemen the
bodies were piled five feet deep in
the pit, where the balconies collapsed
while the frantic, maddened rush of
men, women and children for the
doors was on, all fighting like de-
mons under the swirl of flame for
safety.
The fire broke forth in the scenery
of the wings during the second act
of the matinee. In moment the
great audience was wild. From the
ground to the dome of the closely
packed theatre came screams and
cries of "Fire,'' and in that same
moment began the death dealing
and panic stricken rush for safety.
In the mad struggle to reach the
doors men, women and children
were struck down, trampled and
crushed.
Half faint, bleeding from wounds
and carried along in the crowd,
scores received injuries which may
prove fatal.
All the buildings and stores in the
neighborhood of Randolph and Dear
born streets have been turned into
temporary hospitals and are filed
with the injured,
When the fire broke out on the
stage chorus girls, actors and act
resses were driven to the wind-swept
streets, attired in their light stage
clothes and were wounded and cut
in the crush. A number were car
ried out unconscious, and 1t Is be-
lieved that several chorus girls were
cut off from escape while they were
far up above the flies in the seventh
tier of dressing rooms.
Flames from the calcium lights
caught the flmsy curtain on the stage.
In a flash all the stage draperies
were in flames, and the fire had eaten
its way to the auditorium.
Women and children leaped from
the balconies to the floor, only to be
swept under foot by the crowd that
tried to fight it's mad way to the
street.
Fire Marshal Campion, when he
came out of the burning building,
reported that at least fifty dead were
lying in aisles, piled up in heaps.
He placed the number of dead at
from 200 to 500. The exact number
of victims cannot be known to- night.
Many of the dead were conveyed
to restaurant in the neighborhood,
which had been turned into NOR
que.
In the work of rescue chorus girls,
clad in tights and light costumes, in
which they had been driven from the
stage, their heads cut and faces COW
cred With blood, aided the physicians
and policemen.
Men, with their clothing torn off
in the crush, aided in caring for the
wounded and Placing them on boards
that had been laid as cots in stores
and other establishments.