Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-01-16
SCORES OF OTHERS HURT
Disaster Occurs at Church Bene=
fit at Boyertown, Pa.
PANIC FOLLOWED AN EXPLOSION

the Weaker Ones Were TrampIed
Under Foot-Floor Collapsed and
Those Who Were Carried Down in
the Wreckage Were cremated.
Boyertown, Pa, Jan. 14.-It is esti-
mated that about $50 persons were
burned to death and about seventy
five others were injured in a fire that
completely destroyed Rhodes opera
house in this city. The opera house
was crowded with the members Of
st. Johns Lutheran Sunday school,
who were attending a benefit given for
the church. While the show was in
progress a tank exploded. The actors
e]ndeavored to quiet the audience, but
in their anxiety to make themselves
heard and to avoid the awful STAN
pede of the women end children, the
| Goa! oil lamps which were used at the
place on fire. The flames, fed by the
Oil, shot almost to the ceiling, and
there Was a Wild rush of the 700 per-
sons in the structure to escape from
the burning building. Scores of wo-
me and children were trampled upon
and several who escaped being burned
to death died after being dragged
from the opera house.
In many cases whole families, it is
said, have been wiped out.
The scene of the explosion was in
descritable.
Scores of persons who were in the
balcony at the rear jumped from the
windows and sustained fractured
limbs and skulls.
Fire Apparatus Disabled.
To add to the terrible disaster, the
fire apparatus became disabled and
the structure was left entirely to the
mercy of the flames. 1t is almost
certain not a vestige of the bodies Of
the unfortunates who We're overcome
by the smoke and persisted will ever
be found.
Assistance was asked from Potts
town, but before the fire apparatus
from that city reached this place the
entire center OF the structure was a
roaring furnace.
Had the ome and children heed
cd the warning of the cooler heads
in the audience the horrible loss Of
life might have been avoided, but
there was the usual panic and STAN
pede that invariably follows such an
accident. The flames spread rapidly
and communicated TO other parts Of
the theater. Men, women and chill,
dren rushed for the many exits and
the weaker sex and the children were
trampled and manned in the mad rush
to gain the street.
The blood-curling cries for help of
those who were penned within the
walls of the blazing structure could
be heard above the roaring, seething
flames. 1t seemed as though nearly
the entire audience made a mad rush
for the exits the moment the eXplo-
sion occurred. In the mad rush a
section of the floor gave way, pre-
c%ipitating scores of persons to the
basement. AS the floor collapsed the
shrieks of the helpless persons who
were carried down were heard for
blocks. Ii was scarcely five minutes
from the time of the explosion of the
tanks of the moving picture machine
until the entire heart of the structure
seemed a roaring furnace.
Appealed for Assistance.
Assistance was asked of both Read.
ing and Pottstown, and special trains
carrying nurses and doctors were
rushed TO the cen of the disaster.
Every home within a radius of hall
a dozen blocks of the opera house was
made a temporary hospital, where the
injured were rushed in carriages and
other mean of conveyance.
A special train from Reading bear
ing physicians and nurses came here
but there was little for them to do, as
the injured had been cared for by the
physicians, assisted by the Pottstowr
relief corps.
\ few minutes after midnight the
ear wall of the theater collapsed
The flames broke out anew and those
who had vainly hoped to be able tt
find the remains of some of thei.
loved n turned in despair from thu
scene of the awful catastrophe. 1t i.
r estimated that at least seventy-fvt
. persons were injured by being tram
pied on either on the stairway or b,
jumping from the windows of tn,
burning structure. Of this number a
least a score were fatally injured. A
least half a dozen succumbed to thei
injuries after being hurried to one o
the temporary hospitals.
Three children ranging in age from
eight to twelve years and one woma1
who were dragged from the buildin;
by persons who had rushed to tn
rescue had been trampled almost t
a pulp, the skull of one of the unto,
tunate children being crushed a
though it were an esgshell.