Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-09-01
Is KILLED IN
THEATRE PANIC
SMALL BOY SHOUTED "FiRE"
AND TERRIBLE SCRAMBLE
BEGAN.
ONLY FALSE ALARM
FILM BROKE AND LIGHT WAS
THROWN ON THE
SCREEN.
western Newspaper Union News Service.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Canonsburg, Pain a senseless
panic in moving picture show in the
opera house twenty-six persons were
suffocated or trampled to death, twen-
ty-five were seriously injured and
thirty were less severely hurt, accord
ing to revised figures.
How foolish the panic was, devel-
oped fully when those involved re-
turned to their senses enough to re-
late just what occurred. 1t transpired
that there was no fire. The fatal rush
for the exit was due alone to baseless
fear.
II developed that not even spark
flashed. The film broke with a snap
ping noise and bright light was
thrown on the screen.
A frightened boy imagined it was
fire and unconsciously shouted out
the death knell of more than a score
of persons as he started to rush for
the exit. Bolus Dubrowski, a large
miner, jumped from his seat and ran
wildly for the same exit. In moment
there was fighting. struggling mass
after him.
AT the head of a narrow stairway,
which leads to the street, the miner
tripped. As he rolled down the stairs,
he swept from their feet many per-
sons who were waiting their turn to
enter the theater and soon there was
a horrible pile of women and children
and few men at the foot of the steps.
Dubrowski was probably the first per-
son killed.
1t was all over within a short time.
The stairway was jammed full from
top to bottom and those behind could
not get out
Firemen, several policemen and
few level headed citizens untangled
the human mass. The unhurt and
those slightly injured were pulled
from the top of the pile. AS they
gained the street they ran screaming
like maniacs to all parts of the town.
The seriously injured were sent home
or taken to nearby houses.
AS the silent forms of those who
had been suffocated or crushed were
disentangled, the victims, many of
them women and small children,
were piled on the sidewalk.
Coroner James T. Hoffman has be-
gun rigid investigation. He arrived
at the scene and within a short time
had selected jury.
They were shown through the opera
house by Manager c. F. Ferguson and
John C. Morgan, owner of the build
ing. Measurements taken by the jur-
ors showed the stairway leading to
the second floor of the building, the
main floor of the opera house, to be
only six and one-half feet wide, while
the doorway at the bottom is not more
than eight feet high.
Ii is customary for the manage
ment of the theater to give two or
three performances each evening. and
Saturday the moving picture machine
operator was about to complete the
first session when a film parted.
Some of the audience had already be-
gan to leave the building and others
were on the stairway coming up.
Dubrowski's wild flight through the
theater and his subsequent stumble
down the stairs into those entering
the building. was the beginning of the
death struggling jam at the foot of the
stairs.
When the doorway had been filled
up. still other persons walked over the
bodies of those who had gone down.
and breaking the glass transom over
the door. crawled through and dropped
into the street.