Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1904-01-07

were killed in ten minutes WedneS-
day afternoon during fire in the
Iroquois Theatre, the newest, the
largest and as far as human power
could made it, the safest theatre in
Chicago. Estimates of the dead and
injured vary. The police account of
the dead is 536. The estimate of the
newspapers is 562 Besides this there
are 50 people missing, the majority of
whom are probably among the dead
in the morgue and various undertake
ing establishments.
The fire broke out during the sec
ond act of the play "Mr. Blue Beard" !"
which was the first dramatic produc-
ton given in the theatre since its
erection. The company, which was
very large, escaped to the street in
safety, nearly all of them, however,
being compelled to fee into the
snowy streets with no clothing but
their stage costumes. 4 few mem
Ibers of the company sustained minor
injuries.
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 the stage, causing the members of
the chorus who were then engaged
in the performance to flee to the
wings with screams of terror. The
fire up to this time was not serious
and probably could have been check
ed had not the abestOs curtain failed
to work. As soon as the fire was dis
covered, Eddie Foy, the chief COM
'edian of the company, shouted to
lower the curtain, and this was inn
mediatcly done. 1t descended about
half way and then stuck.
The fire thus was given practically
n hue through which n strong draft
was setting, aided by the doors which
Lad been thrown open in the front of
the theatre. With a roar and a
bound, the flames shot through the
opening over the heads of the 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
theatre from its walls. shattering the
great skylight into fragments. AS
soon as the flames first appeared be-
,yond the curtain Il man in the rear
of the hall shouted Fire! Firc!"
and the entire audience rose as one
person and made for the doors.
1t is believed that the explosion
was caused by the flames coming in
contact with the gas reservoirs of the
theatre. causing them to burst.
As near as can be estimated about
1900 people were in the theatr"
Three hundred of these were on the
first floor. the balance being in the
two upper balconies and III the hall
ways back of them.
The theatre is modelled after the
Opera Comque in Paris and from the
rear of each balcony there are three
doors leading out to passageways to-
ward the front of the theatre. Two
of these doorways are at the end of
the balcony and one in the center.
Outside of the people burned and
sutfocated by gas, it was in these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss of life
occurred. When the tiremen entered
the building the dead were found
stretched in pile reaching from the
head of the stairway at least eight
feet from the door, back to a point
about five feet in the rear of the
door.
This mass of dead bodies in the
center of the doorway reached to
within two feet of the top of the
passageway. All of the corpses al
this point were women and children
The fight for life which must have
taken place at these two points is
something that is simply beyond
human power adequately to describe
Only faint idea of its horror could
be derived from the aspect of the
bodies as they lay. Women on top OF
these masses of dead had been over
taken by death as they were crawling
on their hands and knees over the
bodies of those who had died be.
fore.
Bodies lay in the first and second
balconies in great numbers. In son.e
places they were piled up in thu
aisles three and four deep, where one
had fallen and others tripped over
the PROSTATE forms, and all had diet
where they lay, evidently sutfocateG
backs of seats where they had been
thrown by the rush OF people for the
doors and killed with hardly chance
to rise from their seats.
In the aisles nearest to the doors
the scenes were narrowing in the eX
treme. Bodies lay in every conceiv
able attitude half naked. the look or
their faces revealing some portion o1
the agony which must have preceded
their death. There were scores ant
scores of people whose entire fac,
had been trampled completely off by
the heels of those who rushed ovel
them and in one aisle the body of
man was found with not vestige o
clothing, flesh or bone remaining
above his waist line.
The entire upper portion of hi
body had been cut into mincemea
and carried away by the feet o
those who trampled him.
The theatre had been constructeC