Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-05

! exploded boller In the basement OF tnt
schoolhouse. 1t has been established
that there was no explosion. and the tani
tor of the school, Fred Herter. three OF
whose children perished, declares that II
could not have come from the furnace
Yesterday in Collinwood was compare
lively warm, and Herter declares that he
maintained the fires at a lower rate thar
usual Fearing he had not sufficiently
warmed the building, he was, according
to his story, on his way to open the fur
mace drafts when he was met by three lit
tie girls running from the basement who
told him there was a fire below.
These three little girls are now being
sought by the police and by the fire com
missioners. 1t is considered entirely pos
sible by certain members of the Collin
wood school board that they may have
through carelessness started the blaze
which cost the lives of so many chill
dren.
May Have Been Incendiary.
| l.. r. Gardner, a member of the school
board, is positive in his assertion that the
fire was of incendiary origin In that
portion of the building where it was dis
covered there are no electric light wires
or other direct means of creating heat.
There were in the building at the time
the fire was discovered between 80 and
| 3ol pupils and nine teachers. Two ol
the latter are among the dead
The school was overcrowded, and quar-
ters had been provided for the younger
children in the attic. Strange as 1t may
| seem, more of the pupils escaped from
| this part of the schoOlhouse than from
any other The children were under gooo
discipline. they had been pracuced ire
ouently in the fire drill. their teachers,
without exception. retained their sell
possession showing great courage IN the
| face of imminent DEATH and yet more
| than half of these little ones died De-
cause of faulty building arrangements. :
| The schoolhouse was two stories ana a
half in height, the walls being OF prick
and concrete. Inside it was a she'll Which
| burned with almost inconceivaole RAPID
ity. 80 .ok-
ing ruins within thirty minutes after the
] alarm of fire was sounded
Dead Lay in Heaps.
For supreme horror the scenes that
were enacted around the rear door or 'ne
Inflated schoolhouse have had few parai-
lels. Little school children lay six and
eight deep, while men and women strus-
gled with desperation to release them ufi-
til they were compelled to give way be-
fore the flames and smoke. One woman
fonnd her own daughter in this press and
stroked her hair in the effort to keep the
flames away. She failed and the chiid
was burned to death while her mother
looked on.
| two stairways offered exit. One OF these
led to the door in front, the other 10 tne
rear. The front door was never 1uily
opened, but a dense pile of little bodies
lay in the blackened wreckase peneath
| this point.
| When the fire broke out the teachers
promptly formed the pupils in columns OF
march according to the fire drill which
they had so frequently practiced and
started them for the doors. They had
trained the children to march always to-
ward 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 near
ing the front door rush of flames met
it. Some of the children dashed at the
| door in the effort to open it. while others
turned and fed wildly up the stairs. The
door was double and one side was held
by a spring. The column above kept
pressing down. and within a few sec
onds there was a jam, a panic and a
struggle on the stairway and behind the
half closed front door that nothing could
stop. which cost the lives of all who were
caught within it.
Doors Opening Inward.
4 far worse tragedy. however. was en-
acted at the door in the rear. This, it is
claimed. opened like the front door.
| toward the interior of the building. In
| order to reach this entrance, the pupils
were compelled to march down a stair
| way make the sharp turn in a narrow
hall. and SO to the door. 1t was the lack
| OF space in the hall and the sharp bend
| at the foot Of the stairs that cost so many
lives at this point. When the first chill
| dren fleeing from the fire in front ap-
| proach this door it was closed. Later
| ii was opened despite the terrific jam
| that took place behind it. This would in
| dicate that the door opened outward but
/ the assertions to the contrary are many
| and positive and ii will probably require
an official investigation to determine the
| facts.
| Fleeing from fire in front. the children
| came rushing and tumbling down the
| stairs in a frenzy of terror. The stairs
| themselves were broad, affording passage
| for more children than could pass through
the crooked hallway and the narrow YES
tibule. 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 door
| way the hall and the foot of the stairs
were packed with little bodies. They
| were wedged tightly that 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. anu COuiu save hO lives UCyOuu
a few that they lifted from the top before
the flames came upon them.
Volunteers Were Helpless.
One man. Wallace Upton. fought for
life Of his daughter al this point until
he was so fearfully burned that he may
die All the while. until death closed
their lips. the children were shrieking
for aid A few of the women stood close
to the stairway, holding the hands OF lit
tie ones until the flames drove them
away. 1t was here that Mrs. Phillips
stood and tried to keep the fire from hei
daughters hair. When the fire forced
the mothers to leave some hurled stones
through the windows in tie hope that the
crash of breaking glass would suggest to
the children a possible avenue OF es-
cape.
One woman. Mrs. Sprung. came running
| with a ladder and attempted to go through
a window to save her boy, but she failed
i While agonized men were struggling In
the doorways and frantic mothers were
standing by, they could see the smoke
rising up from the floor and floating away
l. CONTINUED on Tenth Pagel