Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-01-07
HEAPS OF cHARREO AND MAN
CLED HUMANITY CHOKE The
AIsLEs AND EXITS.
VICTIMS TRAMPlTD INTO
UNAtCCGN,ZABlf PULP
pANlc-STRlcKEN PEOPLE TEAR
EACH OTHER TO PIECES IN
RUSH FOR EXITS.

Chicago, Dec. S1.-About 5S2 per-
sons were killed in ten minutes yes
terday afternoon during a fire in the
~Iroquois theater, the newest, the
largest and as far as huraan power
could make it, the safest theater In
Chicago.
The count of actual corpses most
generally agreed upon was 5S2 includ-
ing SCI identified and 81 unidentified.
Lists of the missing vary greatly, one
authority putting the total at 81. Inc
injured nov figure as l04.
A few of these people we're burned
to death by the fire, many were sur
located by gas, and scores were
trampTed to death in the panic THAI
followed the mad plunge of the fright
erred audience for the exits. There
are scores of bodies from which nearly
everything that could reveal their
identity is gone. Their clothing IS
torn to rags or burned to clnders and
their faces have been trampled
Into an Unrecogniza5le Pulp
by the heels of the crowd that
trampled them down as they fed for
safety. {.
The FIRE broke out during the second
act of the play, MIR. Bluebeard," which
was the first dramatic production pro-
drced in the theater since its erection.
The company, which was very large,
escaped to the street in safety; nearly
all of them, however, being compelled
to flee into the snowy streets with no
clothing but their stage costumes. A
few members Of the company sus-
tanned minor injuries, but none were
seriously hurt
The accounts of the origin OF the
fire are conflicting, and none OF them
certain, but the best reason given Is
that an electric wire near the lower
part of a piece of drop scenery sud
denly broke and was grounded. The
fire spread rapidly toward the front of
tie stage. causing the members OF the
chorus who we're then engaged in the
performances. to fee to the wings
With Streams of Terror.
The fire In itself up to this time was
rot serious and possibly could have
been checked had not the asbestos cur
tain failed to work. AS soon as the
fire was discovered Eddie Foy, the
chief comedian of the company,
shouted to lower the curtain, and this
was Immediately done. 1t descended
about halfway and stuck. The fire
thus wa given practicany a 1ue
through which a strong draft was set
ting, aided by the doors which had
been thrown open in the front of the
theater. With a roar and a bound,
the flames shot through the opening
over the heads OF people on the first
floor and reaching clear up to those in
the first balcony, caught them and
burned them to death where they sat.
Immediately following this rush OF
flames there came an explosion which
lifted the entire roof OF the building
from its walls, shattering the great
skylights into fragments. AS soon as
the flames first appeared beyond the
curtain a man in the rear OF the hal
Shouted "Firei Firei"
and the enure audience rose a. one
person and made for the doors. 1t /:
believed that the explosion was caused
by the flames coming in contact with
the gas reservoirs OF the theater. caus
Ing them to burst VII J. Davis
manager OF the theater, said after thu
catastrophe. that II the people had re
manned in their seats and had not beer
excited by the cry Of are. not a singi,
Life would have been lost. This is
however. contradicfed by the state
ments OF the bremen, who found mum
bers Of people sitting In their seats
their faces directed toward the stag,
- e the performance va sull eoin,