The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-03-06
LIKELY TO REACH 1870.
Loss Of Life by Burning Of Col.
linwood, O., School.
CAUSE OF BLAZE UNKNOWN
One Hundred and sixty-five Bodies
Have Been Recovered, Many of
Them So Badly Battered and Burned
as to Be Unrecognizable.


as to Be Unrecognizable.
Cleveland, March Cone hundred
and sixty-five lives, all but Two of
them children between the ages of six
and fifteen years, are known to have
been lost in the fire which destroyed
the public school in North Collinwood,
ten miles east of this city. Fifteen
others still are missing and their
bodies possibly may be in the ruins.
1t probably will be several days be-
fore the exact number of dead is &C
curately determined.
Of the 165 bodies recovered los
have been positively identified and
ffty-seven are still unknown. The
smoke; so battered and bruised by
trampling feet that there is no human
chance of their identity being ever
discovered from anything which they
resembled in their lifetime. It is only
by means of small articles Of wearing
apparel that their names can be as
certained.
The cause of the fire which, aided
and doors which, it is claimed by
many, were made to open toward the
inside, still is a mystery. It was at
first supposed that it came from an
overheated furnace or an exploded
boiler in the basement of the school
house. It has been established that
there was no explosion and the jan
itor of the school, Fred Herter, three
of whose children died within arms
length of their father, declares that
it could not have come from the fur
mace. The day was comparatively
warm, beside the last few days imme-
diately preceding 1t, and Herter de-
clares that he. maintained the fires at
a lower heat than usual throughout
the early part of the morning. Fear
ing he had not sufficiently warmed
the building he was, according to his
story, on his way to open the furnace
drafts and increase the heat when he
was met by three little. girls running
from the basement who told him
there was a fire below. These three
little girls are now being sought by
the police and by the fire commission
ers. 1t is considered entirely possible
by certain members OF the CollinWood
school board that they may have
through carelessness started the
blaze that cost the lives of so many
children.
There were in the building at the
time the fire was discovered between
80 and 325 pupils. They were under
the control Of nine teachers. Two Of
the latter are among the dead.
Younger Children in the Attic.
The school was overcrowded and
quarters had been provided for the
younger children in the attic. Strange
as it may seem more of the pupils es-
capped from this part of the school
house than from any other. The chill
dren were under good discipline, they
had been practiced frequently in the
fire drill, their teachers without ex-
ception retained their self-posses sion,
showing great courage in the face Of
imminent death, and yet more than
half Of these little ones died horribly
because Of faulty building arrange
ments.
The schoolhouse was two stories
and half in height, the walls being
OF brick and concrete. Inside it was
shell, which burned with almost in
conceivable rapidity The entire in
terror was a mass of smoking ruins
lying in the cellar within thirty min
utes after the alarm of fire was
sounded. ... - ....
For supreme horror the scenes that
were enacted around the rear door Of
this Inflated schoolhouse have had
few parallels in this or any other
country. Little children were piled
upon each other, six and eight deep,
while strong men and frantic mothers
struggled with desperation to release
them, yet failed and were compelled
to stand back and see the little ones
die before their eyes. One woman
AOuuu lSI OWu daughter Ill ILLS press
and stroked her hair in the effort to
keep the flames away. She failed and
the child was burned to death while
her mother looked on.
From the upper floors Of the build
ing two stairways offered exit. One
of these led to the door in front, the
other to the door in the rear. It was
in this last place that the lives of the
little ones were lost while would-be
res cuers stood helpless. The scenes
that were enacted in the front hall
will never be known, for all of those
who were caught in the full fury of
the panic were killed. After the
flames died away, however, a huge
heap of little bodies, burned by the
fire and trampled into things of hor-
ror, told the tale as we'll as anybody
need to know it.
Family Narrowly Escapes Death.
ST. Paul, March 6.-Mrs. Louis Bur