Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-15
TOWN DAZED
BY TERRIBLE
CATASTROPHE
ENTIRE FAMILIES LOST IN
DISASTER
BODIES OF THE DEAD BURNED
BEYOND RECOGNITION
Hardly a Person in Village Who Has
Not Lost ReIative-Deeds of
Heroism Seer During Prog
ress of Blaze

ress Of Blaze
By Associated Press.
BOYERTOWN, Pa. Jan. H.-When
nightfall put a stop to the work of re-
covering the dead from the ruins of the
Rhoades opera house, where last nights
holocaust occurred, the official roll of
victims numbered 167. Whether any more
bodies are buried beneath the ruins can
not be positively stated, but it is the be-
lief of those who had charge of the
grewsome work that all of the dead have
been removed and that the total list of
victims will not go over TO-
The ratio of women and girls to men
and boys is about nine to one
Work of identification will not begin
until tomorrow, as most of the bodies are
still lying in a confused state at the four
improvised morgues.
Town ParaIyzed
The population of the place is about
2500 and the disaster paralyzed the town
and the people are going about dazed.
1t is safe to say that everybody in the
place either lost one or more relatives or
was intimately acquainted with those VINO
died in the fire. In several cases whole
families were wiped out.
1t was almost daylight this morning
before the flames were extinguished ard
rescuers were able to enter the ruins 70
remove the dead
The morning was bitter cold and by the
time the benumbed and exhausted fire.
men began the task of disentangling the
mass of burned beams and twisted iron
tne ehtlre RUNS were coated with ice and
there was danger of the walls falling
Ihe work was slow at first and IL was
o'clock before the first body was re-
moved.
Coroner strasser of Reading. who
reached the scene shortly after mid
night last night, had a detail of men
ready to tag the bodies and keen rec
ord of the description of every corpse
removed; The bodies were so badly
burned, however, that there was LITTLE 10
describe them by. and half Of TIE ,io1
TINS Will never be identified.
Railroad Sends Aid
Ihe Philadelphia & Reading railroad Of
fered men to help and soon had tr,o
carloads of laborers and carpenters on
the ground oii
me work of recovering bodies then
moved SO rapidly that victims were be-
ing taken from the ruins at tbe rate of
Two every five minutes.
The Rhoades opera house was 1ocatod
on the second floor of a three-storv hrjcl<
puiidlng. The first floor was occuniad h.,
natlohai bank and several stores and
the third floor was used for lodging
rooms ousins
The entertainment hall was a large
room about 5Ox75 feet. 1t had no GAL
lery; Ihere was stairway at the front
or the building and narrow exit in the
rear of the stage. Fire ESCAPES we're
built on both sides and on the front Of
the building.
80 far as can be learned, there were
ABOUT 425 persons packed in the room
most or whom were adults. The number
OF children present was small There were
about sixty-flve persons, all local talent.
on the stage, who were giving a perform
ance or THE Scottish Reformation"
The entertainment was nearly over
the audience waiting for the curtain to GO
up on the last part, when something
went wrong with the calcium light appar-
atus that was perched on a small plat
form near the entrance of the building
and at the back of the audience. The
light was in charge of H. w. Fischer of
Carlisle. Pa, and he says a rubber tub
bing slipped from one of the tanks. At
any rate, there was loud kissing sound,
which caused many of the audience to
turn their heads in curiosity to see what
it was. There was absolutely no panic Up
to this time and nothing probably would
have happened if one or more of the per-
formers behind the curtain had not been
curious to learn what was causing the
noise.