Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1915-10-28

! Other bodies were believed to be in
| the ruins and il was thought that
twenty-five had been killed or fatal
Fly injured. There were 700 children
in the building when the fire started.
! It's origin is In doubt. Angus Me-
Donald, of the State police, thinks 1t
originated in closet near the stair
way and was caused by a hot air
explosion.
| Mother Superior Aldgeon, who was
in charge of the pupils. heard an ex-
plosion and detecting smoke, sounded
the alarm. There were no fire escapes
on the building, but wide stairways
at either end of the interior led down
to the front exit. Under fire drill
discipline the little ones were marched
through constantly thickening clouds
of smoke to the ground floor, when
| the leaders lost their heads,
| Instead of passing out the rear exit
| according to rule they made a dash
for the front door and became jam.
med i'm the vestibule Meantime the
,tfre had eaten its way upward from
directly under the front entrance and
/ the vestibulte crowded with pupils
presently was enveloped in flames.
Many reached the open and others
we're dropped from second and third
story windows or dragged out of the
windows on the ground floor.
Sister Caremella was one of the
last to leave the building. She stood
at the head OF the stairs on the Sec
ond floor directing the children.
Catherine Nj. O'Donnell, aged thir-
teen, was among the first to escape.
but when she got outside and found
that her two little brothers were
missing, she broke away from the
crowd and ran back into the build
ing. The brothers were afterwards
reported safe, but no trace of Cath
crime could be found after the fire
had burned itself out.
A large percentage OF the pupils
were children of foreign parentage.
In the number were many of Irish ana
Italian descent The fremen fought
the fire from ladders raised to t.s
windows, while the police cleared tn.
yestibule. The bodies of the dead
generally were burned beyond recog-
milton.
Mary Leeds and Marion Hayes were
found i'm the crush badly burned but
alive, and were removed to q nos
pital.
St. Johns parochial school stands
| on Chestnut street, near St. Johns
Catholic Church and the home of Rev.
Nicholas Murphy. the pastor.
Opposite Is st. Johns Convent.
The first alarm brought a hundred
distracted mothers to the schoolyara,
where soon they were Joined by other
relatives of the pupils, until the build
ing was surrounded by a great crowd
| of hysterical men and women VINO
rushed the police lines in q wild Of
fort to reach their children. The po-
lice were powerless to stop the rush,
but what they failed to do was ac-
complished presently by the flames.
which, shooting from the windows OF
the building, held back the unhappy
throng.
The school building was erected six
years ago at a cost of about 100000.
1t was square shaped. with wood
fittings lining the interior of the
brick frame. There were sixteen class
rooms on the three floors. At each end
of the building wooden stairways led
down from the two upper floors.
The head of the school is Mother
Superior Aldegon, who was as
sisted by fifteen sisters The mother
superior detected the odor of smoke
few minutes after the school chill
dren appeared. She Immediately
sounded an alarm which started this
children to the street
According to the version of the sis
ters the pupils were marching out in
| an OTueIly manner uillli Ile leducISs
who had reached the ground floor.
made the mistake of rushing into the
vestibule at the front exit instead of
going out at the rear door, as they
had been trained to do.
This caused confusion among those
who followed, and congestion resulted
in the vestibule.
Meantime the flames had reached
the stairways and caught the strug-
Cling children. Within five minutes
flames we're shooting from all the
windows and exits. The local fire.
men, unable to control the blaze. sum-
moned aid from Salem, Danvers and
Marblehead, but this came too late.
At noon only two of the bodies
those of Lizzie Nolan, aged seventeen
years, and Mary Sullivan, sixteen.
had been identified. Both girls were
to have been graduated this year
The origin of the fire remained in
doubt. Michael Dunn, who lives near
the school said he heard a muffled
! explosion in the school building just
before it was enveloped in flames
When the ruins had cooled suf-
fcently to permit it, Building In
spector A. II. Mcdonald and w S.