Arizona republican., 1908-01-14
A THfATER
 CREMATION
APennSyIydnia Opera House
 Horror Last Night
The Fire Was Attended by the Inevitable Deadly Stampede.

BOyerstown,~ Pa. Jan. 13.-Between
 fifty and seventy-five persons were
 burned to death tonight in a fire which
 completely destroyed the Rhoades
 opera house. The theater was crowd
 ed with members of St. Johns Luther
 an Sunday school who were attending
 benefit given for the church.
 While the show was in progress a
 tank exploded and the actors endeav- ored to quiet the audience. but in
 their anxiety to make themselves
 heard and avoid an awful stampede of
 women and children, the coal oil
 lamps which were used as footlights
 were overturned. setting fire to the
 place The flames. fed by the oil. shot up almost to the ceiling and there
 was a wild rush of 700 persons to es- cape from the burning building. Scores of women and children were trampled upon and several who es- icaped being burned died after being dragged from the house. In many cases it is said entire families have been wiped out.
 The scene which followed the explo-
 sion was indescribable. Scores of per sons who were in the balcony at the [ time of the explosion jumped from the windows and sustained fractured | limbs and skulls To add to the ter
 rible disaster. the fire apparatus be- came disabled and the structure was left entirely to the mercy of the fire.
 Itss certain that not a vestige of the bodies of the unfortunates who were
 overcome by smoke and perished will ever be found. Assistance was asked l from PottstOwn. but before the fire apparatus from that city reached here the entire center of the structure was
 a roaring furnace.
 [ Had the women and children heed ed the warnings ofocooler heads in the audience. the horrible loss of life { might have been avoided. but there was the usual panic and stampede which invariably follow at such a cat
 astrophe The flames spread rapidly and communicated to other parts of
 the building. Men. women and chill dren rushed for the exits and the weaker sex and the children were trampled and maimed in the mad rush
 to gain the street.
 Assistance was asked from Reading
 and special trains carrying nurses and doctors were rushed to the scene. Ev- 1 cry home within a radiuS-of half a dozen blocks of the opera house was made a temporary hospitaN where the wounded were rushed by carriages and
 other means of conveyance.
 BoyerstOwn is borough with a pop ulation of about 25OO. and is located about midway between Pottsville and
 Reading. The fire is not yet under control. but it is not thought that it | will spread to other property as the opera house is on-a plot by itself Hundreds of persons surround the burning structure apparently uncon- ' scious of impending danger from the 1 falling walls. many parents who had children in the house are passing to and fro almost maddened by the awful sight
 The night was one of waiting and anguish. The shock of mothers who rushed to the scene as soon as they learned of the fire was pitiful. As the night wore on the crowds surrounding l the building grew to such proportions that it was almost impossible for the police force which had been augment ed by a score of men from POttstown
 and Reading to keep the people back. One woman who said she had lost her entire family in the theater was with difficulty restrained from throwing herself into tine flames.
 At o'clock a special train from Reading with physicians and nurses
 reached here but there was little for | them to do as the injured had been cared for by local physicians assisted by the Pottstown relief corp. A flew
 minutes after midnight the rear wall of the theater collapsed and the flames broke out anew. Those who
 had vainly hoped to be able to find in the remains some of their lived ones turned in despair from the scene
 of the awful catastrophe.
 It is estimated that at least sev- enty-five persons were injured by be-
 ing trampled upon either in the stair
 way or by jumping from the windows. Of this number at least a score are
 fatally injured. At least half a dozen
 sucoumbed to their injuries after be- .F h1 .nr,