Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-06
CONTINUED from Page One.)

The column above knOWIHB HotiiH6 cH
the fire on the stairs below kept press
ing down and within few seconds
there was a jam, panic ana struS-
gle on the stairway and behind the
half closed front door that nothing
could stop and which cost the lives
OF all who were caught within 1T.
a far worse tragedy however, was
enacted at the door in the rear. That
it is claimed by many, opened ike
the front door, toward the interior or
the building In order to reach this
entrance the pupils were compelled
to march down a stairway. make the
sharp turn in narrow hall and then
pas through the doorway 1t was the
lack of space in the hall and the quick
bend at the front foot of the stairs
that cost so many lives ut this point
When the first of the children, fleeing.
from the fire in front approached this
door, it was closed. Later, it was
opened despite the terrific jam behind
it, This would indicate that the door
opened outward, but the assertions TO
| the contrary are many and positive
| and it will probably require an official
| investigation to determine the facts.
| F'Ieting from fire in front, the
| children came tumbling down the
stairs in a frenzy of error. The
stairs themselves were broad, afford
ing 4 passage to more children than
could pass through the hallway around
the sharp turn, and though the narrow
vestibule of the door, in 10 seconds. At
the bottom of the stairs, right on the
| turn, somebody tripped and fell. III
| -fJ.p MI
| in less time than it can be told, the
doorway. the hall and the foot of the
| stars were packed with little bodies.
They We're wcdged so tightly that Of
these anywhere below the top of the
mass. none could be moved by the ur-
| most strength of two men combined.
| This was proven again and again, for
the rescuers struggled and fought until
| their own hands Were scorched almost
to cinders and still could move no
child from out of the pile and could
save no lives beyond a few that they
lifted from the top before the flames
| came roaring down.
One man, Wallace Upton, fought for
the life of his daughter at this point
until he was so fearfully burned that
he may die Mrs Walter c. Kelly, the
| wife of the marine editor of the Cieve-
land Leader, seeking vainly for her
own two children, who were killed, at
tempted to rescue another little girl
and pulled at her until the half baked
flesh from the child's arm slid through
Mrs. Kelly's fingers and still she was
unable to move her or to drag any of
the others from the mass in which they
were so tightly wedged.
The men earliest at the doorway
thought that if but one child could be
drawn out and the pressure relieved
they could save many. They were I'M
able, however, to move a single one.
Crowding in among the first rescuers
came the mothers. Some could see
their children in the crowd The chill
dren who had been keeping up an in
cessent monotonous scream. shrieked
londed at the sight of their mothers.
few of the women stood close to the
stairway holding the hands of the lit
tie ones until the flames drove them
away. 1t was here that Mrs. Phlllis
stood and tried to keep the fire from
her daughters hair. A few mothers
hurled stones through the windows IN
the hope that the crash of breaking
| -
possible avenue of escape.
Many of the children died quickly, be-
ing suffocated before the fire reached
them. While the agonized men were
struggling in the doorways and the fran
tic mothers We're standing in the rear.
they could the smoke rising up from
the floor and floating away above the
heads of the children. They knew then
that the fire had crept along under the
first flor and was eating away the joists
which held the children up.
AS the children died one by one at first
and later a half dozen at a time. the
screaming grew less and the smoke from
the floor grew thicker and thicker. Then
the flames darted between the children
who were standing back or the stairs
and lying packed in a heap behind the
door Outside many of the women faint
ed and dropped on the ground, where
they were mercifully allowed to lie until
all was over. So great was the mass OF
; children at this point that when the
floor fell through the top of the heap OF
blackened bodies reached from the base
ment floor to the level of the ground.
The local fire department, volunteer
!, | organization with l1ttle OTiil anu l1lItflO.
apparatus, came hnrrying to the scene
but the flames had gained too great head
way to be checked even by firemen more
capable and machinery more powerful
than any at their command.
AS it was. they could not force a stream
above the second floor and did not pos
sess a ladder that would reach the bottom
of the fire escape in the rear of the
building. Because of this lack of precau
ton, more than a dozen lives were los
I in this place alone. Hugh Mc1lrath. {
!. 14-year old boy, son of the chief of the
0 Collingwood police force. led line o
1 panic-strcken children down the escape
to a point where a ladder would have
b saved them all. Many were too terrified
to jump and ran back into the building
McIlrath followed determined to brins
. them out again, and he and they were
e never seen alive again.
!, Miss Anna Moran, the principal Of TIL
n school, denies. that the doors opened in
t ward, and insists that they were neve
: locked during school hours She said: