Omaha daily bee., 1908-03-06
ORIGIN OF FIRE IN DOUBT
COllinwOOd Officials Seeking to Fix
Responsibility.
EARLY THEORIES ARE IN ERROR
Janitor Declares ~ Must Have Been
Started Under Stairway to the
Basement--Hundred and
sixty-Eight Dead.

CLEVELAND, March Slate this after
noon 161 bodies had been taken from the
ruins Of the Lake View school in Collin
wood, whore Il 10 thought 1sO school child
rem lost their lives yesterday. OF the num-
ber Of bodies recovered 12s have been
identified. There may be fully twenty
more bodies in the runins. which have been
burned to ashes.
A great public funeral will take place to-
morrow or Saturday.
County Coroner DIR. T. A. Burke today
began a thorough investigation Of the
causes leading TO the terrible loss of life.
His work will be supplementary to the in
vestigation being conducted by the various
Collinwood officials. such as the board Of
education and the village council.
The work of the Collinwood officials also
was resumed early today. so far they have
arrived at no definite conclusion as to the
cause of the fire or where to place the
blame, IL blame is to be placed.
AS the day wore on belief became gem
eral that the number of dead might total
upward of $50. While 1es bodies had been
recovered it was stated by Village En-
gineer Gould he was OF the opinion that
possibly twenty more bodies still were IN
the ruins burned to ashes. He based this
opinion upon the difference of the number
OF bodies recovered and the number re-
ported missing.
Building said to be FIreproof.
It is generally admitted that the school
building was of approved fireproof CON
struction and that the calamity could not
have been averted, looked at from this
standpoint.
Also 1t now is believed that the fire did not
have it's origin in the furnace or that il
resulted from the explosion of the heating
boiler. From the testimony so far adduced,
the fire must have started under the stair
way leading from the basement to the first
floor of the building. The janitor, Fred
Herter, stoutly maintains that there was
no waste rubbish there.
The officials are doubling their efforts
to ascertain the names of the three rls
who are reported to have been in the base
ment at the time the fire started and who
are said by the janitor to have first notified
him Of the fire. Much depends, It Is
thought, upon the stories these girls may
be able to tell.
These are the problems that are con-
fronting the officials. The latter desire to
learn the exact reason for the holocaust,
not only because 1t may be the means OF
preventing a repetition of the calamity in
the future and stand as a warning to other
schools throughout the county, but will, TO
a degree, appease the anxiety of the
afflicted parents and the public in general.
In this connection the janitor has been
made to bear the major portion of the
blame. While the janitor has practically
cleared himself upon his own testimony
yet the feeling against him S. high ia
Collinwood. Yesterday one father, crazed
hv fn vfcf 40 H.,
of Herter but was restrained with diff
Guilty. Herter is being guarded by the
police. In addition to the blame. whether
justified or not. being heaped upon him.
Herter is broken down with grief over the
loss of three of his own children in the
fire.
Many I'm Attic Escape.
The school was overcrowded and quar-
ters had been provided for the younger
children In the attic. Strange as it may
seem, more of the pupils escaped from this
part Of the school house than from any
other. The children were under good DIS
cipline. They had been practiced frequently
in the fire drill, their teachers without ex-
ception retained their self-possession, show
ing great courage in the face OF imminent
danger. and yet more than half Of these
little ones died horribly because OF faulty
building arrangements,
The school house was two stories and a
half high, the walls being of brick and
concrete. Inside 1t was a shell, which
burned with almost inconceivable rapidity.
The entire interior was a mass OF
smoking ruins lying in the cellar within
thirty minutes after the alarm of fire was
sounded.
For supreme horror, the scenes that were
enacted around the rear door OF this Ill
fated school house have had few parallels
in hhis or any other country. Little chill
dren were piled upon each other, six and
eight deep, while strong men and frantic
mothers struggled with desperation to Ie-
lease them, yet failed and were compelled
TO stand back and see the little ones die
before their eyes. One woman found her
own daughter in this press and stroked
her hair In the effort to keep the flames
away. She failed and the child was burned
to death while her mother looked on.
Piles of Blackened Bodies.
From the upper floors of the building
two stairways offered exit One OF these
led to the door In front, the other TO the
door in the rear. 1t was in this last place
that the lives Of the little ones were lost
while would-be rescuers stood helplessly by.
The scenes that were enacted in the front
han will never be known. The door at
this side of the building was never fully
opened. but dense pile of little bodies
that lay in the blackened wreckage be-
meath this point, the feet. the hands the
limbs and the skulls that were scattered
about formed complete index to the
horrors that had taken place.
When the teachers were informed OF the
existence of the fire they promptly formed
the pupils in march columns, according to
the fire drill, and started them for the
door They had trained the children to
march always toward the door in front
and instinctively the columns headed that
way. and the children unknowingly were
by their teachers literally marched into
the very face Of death. When the head
Of the column was nearing the front door
rush OF flames met II. Some of the
children dashed at the door in the effort ia
open II, while others turned and fled wildly
up the stairs The door was double and one
side was held by a spring The column
above, knowing nothing Of the fire on
the stairs below. kept pressing down and
within a few second there was a jam OF
panic and struggle on the stairway and
behind the half-closed front door that moth
ing could stop and which cost the lives OF
all who were caught within IT,
No Power SaffIcieat f0r R....s