Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-03-11
HoRRIBLE sIRE IN CLEVELAND.
? Probably 200 school, children are
Cremated i'm the Ruins.

Cleveland, Ohio, Merch AT 3
o'clock this afternoon lac hodies had
e. pen recovered from the ruins of the
burned collinswood school,
Smoke is still rising In dense
clouds from the ruins. and the work
OF removing the dead progresses very
sslowly.
1t is certain that many more boli, )
& are in the basement, carried there
Z by the collapse of the third floor.
1t is also reported that number
of adults, who made heroic efforts to
rescue the children, were caught In
the collapse of this floor and carried
Ito their death.
&IA The ruins are greatly heated and
&Sdntil the walls cool the searchers can-
not penetrate to all parts of the base
ment.
81 In the mad panic that followed the
alarm the little ones made q frantic
rush for the doors, and I'm few sec
onds their tiny bodies. twisted and
contorted, had jammed the exits and
prevented the escape of those be-
hind, who tore and fought to get out.
When the news spread over the
little village frantic mothers and IA
theirs and other relatives rushed to
( the scene and fought madly to get
into the burning structure, where al
most certain death awaited them and
had already doomed so many chill
dren. The older people were only
OF the special guard of police.
ae When the blaze broke out door
connecting with the upper part of
the building was opened by one of
the attendants. This was a fatal
mistake, for clouds of smoke, driven
by q back draught, poured into the
rooms
The children rushed for the doors.
Teachers frantically tried to prevent
panic and organized e., fire drill.
They could no more stem the terri
fed little ones than hold back the
NOcean.
4 The fire department was soon on
-<the scene. There was not sufficient
ladders to make the work Of rescue
effective. An aerial ladder was at
tempted to save some of the children.
and several ffremen nearly lost their
lives by the failure OF this plan.
When the firemen finally reached
the third floor, some of the children
still within the rooms were living.
The doorways. however, were choked
with the tiny bodies.
This made the work of rescue diffi.
cult. Et
Where the Children Died.
Nearly all the children were killed
in the mass at the first floor door
which finally was opened by men
from the Lake Shore railroad shops,
who hurried to the scene. A wall of
flame had formed across 1t, how
ever, and most of the children al
doors were swung.
Miss Catherine Weller, oue of the
nine teachers in the school, lost her
life in a vain effort to marshal the
pupils Of her class and lead them to
safety. She died in the crush at the
rear door. Her room was on the
second floor and when the fire alarm
sounded she marched her pupils into
the hall, believing 1t was only a fire
drill There the truth dawned upon
both the teacher and pupils and con-
troll was lost. The children plunged
into the struggling mass ahead of
them. Miss Weller attempted to
stem the rush, but went down under
it and her body was found an hour
later piled high with those of her
pupils
Miss Fiske, another teacher, was
taken out alive, but she cannot live.
Burning through the cross sup
port Of the first floor, the flames
passed upward until all three floors
crashed into a smouldering pile into
the basement.