Evening star., 1908-01-14
TerribIe Holocaust in a Thea
ter at BoyertoWn. Pa.
CAUSED BY BURSTING TANK
Audience Rushed Out in Wild Panic
and Confusion.
CHILDREN TRAMPLEDToDEATH
Fire Apparatus Proved Wholly In
adequate and Engines Broke
Down at Critical Moment

Estimates place the number
killed in last nights thcater hor-
ror at Boyertown, Pa, from 200
TO $50. The town officials think
at least $50 lives were lost. Only
a few were injured.
The fire department CHIEF says
the first rush toward the stage
was caused BY several men and
women becoming frightened when
the hose connecting the moving
picture machine and the tank sup
plying the light slipped off its
connection and made a Kissing
noise. The tank itself did not
explode. he says, until after the
flames had reached it.
At ? o'clock this afternoon 100
bodies had been removed from
the debris.
RoYERToWNl Pa, January 14.-Whcn
daylight dawned today the full extent Of
fast nights horror. when Rhoads' Opera
House was burned. was apparent. The
list of dead Is placed at 10 and the in
jured at seventy-five.
How many were killed may never he
known. for among the victims of this
awful disaster were number of visitors
and some strangers who may have left no
relatives TO trace them to their untimely
fate.
IL IS estimated that there were 400 per-
sons In the playhouse when the cxplo-
sion or the gas tank occurred. The tank
was being used In connection with moving
pictures. An amateur performance of
Scottish Reformation" for the benefit of
st. Johns Lutheran Sunday school was
being produced.
Instantly the explosion occurred somc
one yelled fire" and in almost less time
than IL takes TO tell 1t the center of the
opera house was a Seething furnace. The
rapidity with which the flames spread was
caused by the upsetting of the coal oil
lamps. used the footlights, by some of
the persons on the stage who endeavored
10 allay the fright of the women and chill
dren and quiet. the audience.
Men Lost Self-Control.
But even the men seemed to lose all
control of themselves and fought with
the women and children. who composed
the greater part of the audience. TO gain
the street. In this manner many women
and children who might otherwise have
escaped the roaring flames were forced
back and trampled upon. Particularly
this the case with those who were
caught on the stairways. PandemoniIm
rcigned and the mad scramble for the
exits Is simply indescribable. The weaker
ones were brushed aside and in many in
stances tramplcd 10 death.
Scores OF persons on the second floor
seeing the awful jam on the stairways
rsked their lives By jumping from the
windows In this way several were SO
badly injured that they died before reach
ing any or the numerous temporary hos
pitals.
Boyertown IS village Of about 100
population, and there is scarcely a house
IN the little town that has not been af-
ficted by last nights visitation of fire.
Reuben w. Slower one of those who eS-
caped the flames, in speaking of the fire,
said today:
A Survivors Statement
When the explosion occurred there
We're at least thirty boys and girls on the
stage while many more were behind the
scenes. Without warning there was a
terrific explosion. which seemed 10 shake
the entire bulidlng. Immediately there
was a wild rush for the exits
The people on the stage iumped over
the footlights into the audience Every
body seemed TO have lost control OF them
selves. The flames first consumed the
ntmsy scenery, and then came toward ,he
crowd ike a great wave, and the slffo-
eating smoke dropped men. women and
children in It's path. The flames did the
rest
1t was pitiful sight, and will carry
the recollection long as | live. once
inc CROWD began 10 night its way toward
the doors no power on earth could hay .
saved AL the lives. but | believe il the
men had not lost control OF themselves
the loss Of life would have been very
small