Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1915-11-05
q CHILDREN DE
In SCHOOL FIRE
Flames Swsep ParOchia| School
at Peabody, Mass.
CAUSE or DISASTER UNKNOWN
Boy and Girl Pupils Burned or Crush
ed to Death and Heap of Bodies
Blocked Firemen.

ed to Death and Heap of Bodies
Blocked Fremen.
While 700 boys and girls were at
their orning prayers IN the pa
rochial school of st. Johns Catholic
church, in Peabody, Mass, fire start
ing in the basement, swept through
the three stories of the brick and
J wooden building in less than five min.
/ utes.
Twerty y-one children, none out OF
their teens, were burned or crushed to
death while attempting to escape.
Nine are missing, score OF others
were injured, several seriously.
The bodies of the dead were fright
fully burned and of the nineteen at
the morgue only two, Elizabeth NO
Ian, seventeen years old, and Mary
Sullivan, sixteen years old, members
of the senior class, had been identi-
fed. Wilfred Mead, also sixteen,
died on the way to the hospital.
The origin OF the fire is in doubt.
Angus Mcdonald, of the state police,
believes it originated in closet near
the stairway and was caused by hot
air explosion.
Mother Superior Aldegon, who was
in charge Of the sisters who taught
in the school, heard an explosion and
detecting smoke, sounded the alarm.
There were no fire escapes on the
outside of the building, but wide stair
ways at either end OF the interior
led down to the front exit. Under
fire drill, the children were marched
through constantly thickening clouds
of smoke 10 the ground floor, when
the leaders lost their heads.
Instead Of passing out the rear eX-
it, according to rule, they made
dash for the front door and be-ame
iammed in the vestibule. Meantime
the fire had eaten its way upward
from directly under the front en-
trance and the vc5tibule crowded
with pupils presently was enVeloped
in flames.
Their exit thus blocked, scores of
the children clambered through the
windows o. the first floor or jumped
from these on the second and third
floors. The sisters worked heroically
to save their charges. Two Of the
nuns weie injured, but the loss of
life would nave been appalling had
not the sisters taken places at win
dows and passed or thrown the little
children to the street.
Firemen with two lines Of hose
made a rush at the doorway and tried
to fight their way in. A sudden sweep
Of draft sent tie flames so fairly in
their faces that they were beaten
back. They made second try, this
time throwing over the targle of
small bodies a number of heavy rub.
ber blankets. Then from outside the
door and as near as they could get,
, they directed a stream of water upon
the blankets in a desperate hope of
keeping off the flames till rescue
could be made.
But in a short time, so desperately
swift was the progress or the fire, ef'
forts Of the Gremen were needed else
where. TIE t,1rne1 over one of the
hoses to T''2'~ tNy O'Ccnnor, a police
man. He force! his way to the door
way and there stood, spraying the
water over the blanket-coYered heap
TIE walls above the policeman
treni;!nd and threatened to fall, but
he stood his ground, his face blister
eG by the heat. The steady work ot
the hose il O'Connor's hand kept
back the flames that crept along the
| fCar toward the bodies and made
possible the saving Of life.