New-York tribune., 1908-01-14
rBy The Associated Press-I


Boyertown, Penn Jan 1S-The opera mouse
was crowded with the members OF 81 'orh
Lutheran Sunday School, who were attending
benefit given for that church Whle the slo"
was in progress a tank exploded
The actors endeavored to quiet the audience
but in their anxiety to make themselves !ied'u
and to avoid the awful stampede OF the women
and children the coal oil lamps which were
used as footlights were overturned setuhS
the place on fire. The flames, fed oy the o'i'
shot almost to the ceiling and there was a "ilu
rush cf the seven hundred persons to escape
from the burning building
Scores of women and children were trampleu
and several who escaped being burned 10 ue''ii
died after being dragged from the opera mousse
In MANY cases it is said, entire families nave
been wiped out. Scores of persons who were III
the balcony at the time the explosion occurred
Jumped from the windows and sustained fract-
ured limbs and skulls.
To add to the terror the fire apparatus became
disabled and the structure was left entirely TO
the mercy of the seething flames 1t Is almost
certain not vestige of the bodies OF the un-
fortunates who were overcome by the smoke anu
perished ever will be found. Assistance was
asked from Pottstown but before the fire ap-
paratus from that city reached this pace the
entire centre of the structure was roaring
furnace.
Had the women and children needed the warn
ing of the cooler heads in the audience the horri-
BILE loss of life might have been avoided but
there was the usual panic and stampede Whlch
| invariably follows at such a catastrophe Ihe
| flames spread rapidly and communicated TO the
| other parts of the theatre
Men. women and children rushed for the many
exits. and the women and children were trampled
and manned in the mad rush to the street
Assistance was at once asked of both Reading
| and Pottstown, and special trains carrying
,,,rsee and doctors were rushed to the scene.
p,,,e-v home within radius of half a dozen
blocks of the opera house was made tempo
rary hospital where the wounded were rushed
| bv carriages and other means of conveyance.
Rovertown is a borough with population Of
about two thousand five hundred, and is sit
uated about midway between Pottstown and
Reading.
The night was one of wailing and anguish.
The shrieks of mothers who had rushed to the
scene as soon as they learned of the fire were
ptiful. AS the night wore on the crowds sur
| rounding the building grew to such proportions
that if was almost impossible for the police
forca which had been augmented by a score
| of men from Pottstown and Reading, to 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 roaring flames.
At o'clock a special train from Reading
hearing phvsicians and nurses reached here.
hut there was little for them to do as the in
tured who had dashed themselves to the pave
n,ent had been cared for by the physicians, as
sisted by the Pottstown relief corps. A few
minutes after midnight the rear wall of the
theatre collapsed The flames broke out anew
and those who had vany hoped to be able to
find the bodies of some of their loved ones
turned in despair from the of the catas-
trophe
If is estimated that at least seventy-five per-
sons were injured by being trampled upon either
on tho stairway or by jumping from the win
dows of the burning structure. OF this num-
her at least a score were fatally injured and
a half dozen succumbed to their injuries after
bainr 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 a pulp
The fire was under control shortly before L
o'clock but il will be absolutely impossible to
attempt to make a search of the ruins before
Tomorrow 1t is extremely doubtful if the
bodies of the victims can be distinguished from
the debris as many persons in the audience
we're covered with burning Ill as the lamps ex-
!rlaI cd