Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-03-13
could stop and which cost the lives
of all who were caught In it.
Door Opened lFiwards.

vi oil lO NCAC R%NShS AA ASs
Door Opened lnwards.
A far worse tragedy, however, was
enacted at the door in the rear. This,
1t is claimed by many people, opened,
like the front door. toward the interf-
or of tho building.
In order to reach this entrance the
pupils were compelled to march down
a stairway, make a sharp turn in a
narrow hall and then pass through
the doorway. 1t was the lack of space
in the hall and the quick bend at the
foot of the stairs that cost so many
lives at this point. When the first
children, fleeing from the fire in front
appeared at the door, it was closed.
Later it was opened, despite the ter
rife jam that took place behind it.
This would indicate that the door
opened outward, but the assertions
to the contrary are many and positive
and 1t will probably require an Off.
eisl investigation to determine the
facts,
Fled In Frenzy Of Terror.
Fleeing from a fire in front, the
children came rushing and tumhling
down the stairs in q frenzy of terror,
The stairs themselves were broad, af.
fording passage to more children in
one second than could pass through
the hallway, around the sharp turn,
and then through the narrow veStibule
of the door in ten seconds. At the
bottom of the stairs, right on the
turn, somebody tripped and fell. In
another instant others were down, and
in less time than it can be told, the
doorway, the hall and the foot of the
stairs we're packed with little bodies.
They were wedged so tightly that OF
those anywhere below the top Of the
mass, none could be moved by the
bined.
UnmovabIe Pile Of Bodies.
This was proven again and again,
for the rescuers struggled and fought
until their own hands were seorched
almost to cinders, and still they could
move no Child. from out of the pile,
and could save no lives beyond a few
that they had lifted from the top be-
fore the flames came roaring down
upon them.
The local fire department, volun-
teer organization with little drill and
inferior apparatus, came hurrying to
the scene, but it was powerless from
the first. The flames had gained toe
great headway to be checked by the
firemen's machinery.
For all that, however, they were
wretc2edly inadequate to the occasion.
They. could not force a stream above
the SECOND floor and they did not pos
sesses a ladder that was long enough
to reach the bottom of the fire escape
on the rear of the building. Be
cause of, this lack of even ordinary
precautions more tran dozen lives
were lost in this place alone.
Boys Attempt to Save Lives:
Hugh McIlrath, fourteen-year-
old boy, son of the chief of the Col
lingwood police force, led q line of
panie-strieken children down the es-
cape to point where a ladder would
have saved them all. Many of them
were too terrified to jump and ran
back into the building. McIlrath
followed in the determined effort to
bring them out again, and he and
they were never seen again alive.
Miss Anna Moran, the principal of
the school, denies that the doors
opened toward the inner part of the
building, and insists that they were
never locked during school hours.
To investigate Fire.
"A rigid investigation is promised
into the cause of the fire. Governor
Harris annoaH ced that the state aH-
thorities would look inte the matter
In most minute manner. He issued
Instructions to the department OF
workshop and factory inspection to
commence an investigation at once.
Fire marshals are earnestly seek
ing to establish the cause and place
the responsibility for the fire.
The officials of the coroner's Office
are also working to the same end.
The school board of Collingwood has
taken up the matter ana will look in
TO It carefully. So far, however, no
c!ews of value and no definite infor.
nation have been obtained.