The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-01-14
EXPLOSION, STAMPEDE,
THEN BATTLE FOR LEE
Fire Caused by Kicking Over
Oil Lights on Stage Was
the Chief Contributing
Cause to the Horror Of the
Situation.

tion Of the steaming ruins Of the
Rhoades opera house, shortly before
noon to-day, and a poll OF the homes
OF the little parish of st. Johns Luther
an church, indicate that the list Of
dead resulting from the fire and panic
last night will approximate l5O Al
ready IS bodies have been identified nc
cording to the coroner, and reports from
the temporary hospitals show that sew
eral fatalities will result among tile 10
persons seriously injured.
The rescue party which is searching
the ruins to-day is greeted with appall.
ing sights that have not been equalIcd
in this country since the Iroquois thea
tire fire in Chicago
Further investigation reveals that
the entire disaster was due primarily to
the panic and the stampede after the
first explosion, inconsequential in itself.
The flash and noise. however, terrified
the children in the packed hall and start
ed the first rush for the doors. 1t was
then that those on the stage became
frightened and kicked over the kerosene
lamps used for foot-lights and fred the
place.
OF the injured who escaped nearly at
are suffering from broken limbs and
fractured skulls, the results OF leaps
from the windows.
The Start Of tie Catastrophe.
The opera house was crowded with the
members Of the Sunday school who were
attending benefit given for that church.
While the show was in progress, a tank
exploded The actors endeavored to
quiet the audience, but ia Their anxiety
to make themselves heard and To avoid
the awful stampede Of the women and
children, the coal oil lamps which were
used as the footlights were overturned,
setting the place on fire The ilames
fed by the oil, shot almost to the ceiling
and there was wild rush Of the 700
persons to escape from the burning
building. Scores Of women and chill
dren were trampled on, several who Is
capped being burned to death died after
being dragged from the opera house.
In many cases entire families were
wiped ont. The scene which followed
the explosion is indeseribable. Scores Of
persons who were in the balcony at the
time the explosion occurred jumped from
the windows and sustained fractured
limbs and skulls.
TO add to the terrible disaster the fire
apparatus became disabled and the strue-
ttre was left entirely to the mercy Of
the seething flames. Assistance was
asked from Pottstown, but before the
apparatus from that city reached this
place, the entire center Of the structure
was roaring furnace
Had the women and children needed
the warning of the cooler heads in the |
audience the horrible loss OF life might |
have been avoided, but there was the |
usual panic and stampede which invari
ably follows at such a catastrophe. The !
flames spread rapidly and communicated
to the other parts of the theatre. Men, |
women and children rushed for the many
exits and the weaker sex and the chill |
dren were trampled and MANNED in the
mad rush to gain the street.
Assistance was at once asked of both /
Reading and Pottstown and special /
trains carrying nurses and doctors were 1
rushed to the scene of the disaster. Ey-
cry home within radius OF half a dozen I
blocks Of the opera house was made a
temporary hospital where the wounded
were rushed uy carriage and other means
OF conveyance.
The night was one Of waiting and
anguish The shrieks Of mothers who
had rushed to the scene as soon as they
learned of the fire was pitiful. As the
night wore on the crowds surrounding
the building grew to such proportions
that it was almost impossible for the
poliee force. which had been augmented
bv score Of men from Pottstown and
tc keep the people back. One
woman. who said she had lost her entire
family in the theatre. was with difficulty
restrained from throwing herself into
the rearing flames.
At one o'clock r special train from
Reading bearing physicians and nurses
reached here. but there was little for
them to do. as the injured who had
dashed themselves to the pavement had
I,een cared for hy the physicians. assist
a by the pottstown relief corps. a
few minutes after midnight the rear wall
n the theatre collapsed. The flames
broke ont anew and those who had vain
h aoped to b. able t. find the remains
n some of their loved ones turned in
ieses;r from the scene Of the awful
Three children ranging in age from
e y years and one womani who were