The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-03-25

MOrgue CONTAINS loo tIctiIns.
The fire occurred at 10 a. m, soon
after the children had assembled at
the school, which was ten miles east
Of Cleveland. One hundred and Six
ty-fye little bodies lie in the tenn
porary morgue near the school. or
have been taken home. Six children
were still unaccounted for, and all
the hospitals and houses for two
miles around contain numbers of in
jured children, some of whom Will
die.
The school contained between 80
and 325 pupils, and of this entire
number only about eighty are known
to have left the building unhurt. 1t
will be several days before the actual
number of killed is known, as the
ruins may still contain other bodies,
and the list Of fatalities may be in
creased by a number of deaths among
the children lowering between life
and death.
The school house was Of brick, two
stories and an attic in height. The
number of pupils was more than nor
mally large, and the smaller children
had been placed in the upper part OF
the building. There was only one
fire escape in the rear. There were
two s~tairways, n leading to a door
in front and the other to a door in
the rear. Both of these doors opened
inward.
When the flames were discovered
the teachers, who throughout seem to
have acted with courage and self
possession and to have struggled he
roically for. the safety of their pupils,
marshalled the little ones into col
umn for the fire drill" which they
had often practiced.
When the children reached the
foot of the stairs they found the
flames close upon them, and so swift
a rush was made for the door that in
an instant a tightly packed mass OF
children was piled up against it.
From that second none of those upon
any portion Of the first flight Of stairs
had a chance for their lives.
The children at the foot Of the
stairs attempted to fight their way
back to the floor above, while those
who were coming down showed them
mercilessly back into the flames be-
low. In an instant there was a
frightful panic, with 200 children
fighting for their lives. Most Of those
who were killed died here. The
greater part of those who escaped
managed to turn back and reached
the fire escape from the windows IN
the rear.
Heap of Burned Bodies Told the Story
Exactly what happened at the foot
of that first flight Of stairs will never
be known, for all of those caught in
the full fury of the panic we're killed.
After the flames had died away a
huge heap of little bodies burned by
the fire and trampled into things of
horror told the tale as well as any
body need to know it..
Collinwood contains about 5000
people, and within a half hour after
the outbreak of the fire nearly every
n of them was gathered around the
blazing ruins Of the school house,
hundreds of parents fighting franti-
sally with the policemen and fremen
who were busily engaged In saving
the lives of the children caught In
the burning building, and doing their
best to extinguish the fire.
The police were utterly unable,
through lack of numbers, to keep
nway the crowd that pressed upon
them, and. the situation soon became
SO serious that a number Of the more
cool headed men in the throng took
It upon themselves to aid in fighting
back the crowd, while others worked
to help the fremen and the police.
Among these latter men was Wal
lace Upton, who reached the building
shortly after the front door had caved
N, and disclosed to the horror strick-
IN crowd the awful scenes that had
been enacted there. Just in front OF
Upton's eyes was his OWL ten-year-
old daughter, helpless in the crush;
badly burned and trampled upon. but
Ftill alive. The fire was close upon
her, and If she could not be saved at
once she could not be saved at all.
Upton sprang to help her. and with
MI his strength sought to tear her
from the weight that was pressing
her down and from the flames which
were creeping close. Although ne
worked with the desperation of de-