Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-06
HORROR OF CLEVELAND
TRAGEDY NOT ABATED,
Death List Unchanged--- Grand Rapids,
Michy Nearly Has Like Disaster
Inspections and Fire Drills.

lished that there was no explosion, and
| the Janitor of the school, Fred Her.
ter, three of whose children persisted,
| declares that it could not have come
| from the furnace. Yesterday in Collin
| wood was comparatively warm and
| Herter declares that he maintained the
| fires at lower rate than usual. Fear
| ing he had not sufficiently warmed the
| building he was, according to his story,
| on his way to open the furnace drafts
| when he was met by the three little
| girls running from the basement, who
told linn there was a fire below. Those
three little girls are now being sought
by the police and by the fire com
missioners. 1t is considered entirely
possible by certain members of the
! CollinwCod school board that they may
have through carelessness started the
| blaze which cost the lives of so many
| children.
l.. r. Gardner a member of the
i school board, is positive in his asser-
ton that the fire was of incendiary orr
gin. In that portion of the building
where it was discovered. there are no
| electric light wires or other direct
means of creating heat
There We're in the building at the
time the fire was discovered between
80 and 325 pupils and nine teachers
Two of these are among the dead that
lie this morning in the extemporized
morgue in the warehouse of the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad
at Collinwood.
The school was overcrowded and
quarters 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 school
house than from any other. The chill
dren were under good discipline, they
had been practiced frequently in the
fire drill. their teachers without ex-
ception retained their self possession,
showing great courage in the face of
imminent death, and yet more than
half of these little ones died horribly
because of faulty building arrange
ments. The schoolhouse was two
stories and a half in height, the walls
being of brick and concrete. In side it
was a shell which burned with almost
inconceivable rapidity
The entire interior was mas of
smoking ruins lying in the cellar
five was sounded.
For supreme horror the scenes that
were enacted around the rear door
OF the Inflated schoolhouse have had
few parallels. Little children were
piled up on each other six and eight
deep, while strong men and frantic
mothers struggled with desperation to
release 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
stress, and stroked her hair in the eff
fort to keep the flames away, but the
child was burned to death while her
mother looked on.
From the upper floor of the build
ing. two starways offered exit. One
of these led to the door in front, the
other to the door in the rear. Ii was
this last place that the lives Of the
little ones were lost while would-be
rescuers stood helpless The scenes
that were enacted in the front hall
Will never be known. The door at this
side of the building was never fully
opened. But dense pile of little
bodies lay in the blackened wrackage
index to the horrors that had taken
place.
When the teachers were informed of
the existence of the fire, thew prompt
ly formed the pupils in columns of
march according to the fire drill which
they had frequently practiccd and
started for the doors. They had train
ed the children to march always to-
ward the door in front and Instructive
ly the columns headed that way. and
the children unknowingly were by
their teacher literally marched into the
very face of death.
When the head of the column was
nearing the front door a rush Of flames
met it. Some of the children dashed |
at the door in the effort to open it.J
while others turned and fed wildly |
Continued on Page Twelve.)