The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1908-01-17

Under Foot-Floor Collapsed ane
Those Who Were Carried Down in
tho Wreckage Were cremated.
Boyertown, Pa, Jan. 14.-It is esti
mated that about $50 persons were
burned to death and about seventy
Ave others were injured in a fire that
completely destroyed Rhodes opera
house in this city. The opera house
was crowded with the members OF
St. Johns Lutheran Sunday school,
who were attending a benefit given for
the church. While the show was in
progress a tank exploded. The actors
endeavored to quiet the audience, but
in their anxiety to make themselves
heard and to avoid the awful STAN
pede of the women end children, the
coal oil lamps which were used at the
footlights were overturned, setting the
place on fire. The flames, fed by the
oil, shot almost to the ceiling, and
there Was a wild rush of the 700 per.
sons in the structure to escape from
the burning building. Scores of wo-
mon and children were trampled upon
and several who escaped being burned
to death died after being dragged
from the opera house.
In many. cases whole families, it Is
said, have been wiped out.
The scene of the explosion was in
describable.
Scores of persons who were in the
balcony at the rea jumped from the
windows and sustained fractured
limbs and skulls.
Fire Apparatus Disabled.
To add to the terrible disaster, the
fire apparatus became disabled and
the structure was left entirely to the
mercy of the flames. 1t is almost
certain not a vestige of the bodies of
the unfortunates who were overcome
by the smoke and persisted will ever
be found. j..
Assistance was asked from Potts
town, but before the fire apparatus
from that city reached this place the
entire center of the structure was a
roaring furnace.
Had the women and children heed
ed 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 stam-
pede that invariably follows such an
accident. The flames spread rapidly
and communicated to other parts Of
the theaterA Men, women ana chill
dren rushed for the many exits and
the weaker sex and the children were
trampled and manned in the mad rush
to gain the street.
The blood-curling cries for help of
those who were penned within the
walls of the blazing structure could
be heard above the roaring, seething
flames. 1t seemed as though nearly
the entire audience made a mad rush
for the exits tho moment the eXplo-
sion occurred. In the mad rush q
section of the floor gave way, pre-
cipitating cores of persons to the
basement. AS the floor collapsed the
Ehrieks Of the helpless persons who
were carried down were heard for
blocks. 1t was scarcely five minutes
from the time of the explosion of the
tanks of the moving picture machine
until the entire heart of the structure
seemed a roaring furnace.
Appealed for Assistance.
Assistance was asked of both Read
ing and P%ottstown, and special trains
carrying nurses and doctors were
rushed to the scene of the disaster.
Every home within a radius of half
a dozen blocks of the opera house was
made a temporary hospital, where the
injured were rushed in carriages and
other mean of conveyance.
A special train from Reading bear.
ing physicians and nurses came here,
but there vas little for them to do, as
the injured had been cared for by the
physicians, assisted by the Pottstown
relief corps.
a few minutes after midnight the
rear wall of the theater collapsed.
The flames broke out anew and those
who had vainly hoped to be able to
find the remains of some of their
loved ones turned in despair from the
scene of the awful catastrophe. 1t is
estimated that at least seventy-five
persons were injured by being tram,
pied on either on the stairway or by
jumping from the windows of the
burning structure. OF this number at
least a score were fatally injured. At
least half a dozen succumbed to their
injuries after being hurried to one of
the temporary hospitals.
Three children ranging In age from
eight to twelve years and one woman
who were dragged from the building
by persons who had rushed to the
rescue had been trampled almost to
. pulp, the skull Of n Of the unfor-
tunate children being crushed -
though It were an esgshell.