Imperial Valley press., 1923-05-18
TERRIBLE TOLL
ENACTED WHEN
LAMP EXPL0DES
Entire Families Wiped
Out in SOuth's Awful
Tragedy
MANY CHILDREN DIE
Dozens Trampled to
Death When Stairway
COllapses
MANY CHILDREN DIE
BY H. D. NILES

United Press Special Correspondent
CLEVELAND, S. c., May
18. - Seventy six crushed
and blackened bodies, the
toll of a disastrous fire
which trapped 400 proud
parents, friends and child
ren in a school house here,
were in improvised morgues
today as officials continued
searching the ruins Of the
little frame building.
Police officials in charge
of the rescue announced at 9
o'clock that they did not be-
lieve any more bodies would
be found in the still glowing
embers.
Every home in the little village
has been pressed into service either
as morgue or as a hospital, to care
for those trampled in the panic
| which followed the cry of "Fire!''
or who were bruised in leaping to
safety from windows on the second
floor.
Homes Of the peaceful rural COM
munity were converted into houses.
of horror by the agony of the in
! jured. Some suffered broken backs
in their daring leaps from the build
| ing, while others, including women
| and children were battered and
| broken by the crush at the door of
the school house when the audience,
mad with fright, sought to escape
| the heat of the flames
Victims are Farmers
Farmers and their families who
came to town to be entertained for
an evening by their children, churn-
ed and milled at the closed door like
stampeded cattle and those who fell
or were knocked over in the crush
of humanity were trampled under
foot.
When the flames, roaring through
the building, reached the frenzied
cluster about the entrance and
those who had gone down were con-
sumed in the blaze.
Little groups gathered about each
body as it was brought from the
debris, but there was little that re-
manned to. establish the names Of
the victims.
The bodies, lifted carefully and
carried tenderly by loved ones, were
taken to nearby homes. Then, as
the toll of the disaster mounted,
| other houses were commandeered
until virtually every residence had
become morgue or a hospital.
Score Injured.
The injured number more than a
score, according to Sheriff F. f..
Welch of Camden, who made pre-
liminary survey today.
The figures compiled by Welch
showed more than go persons were
| still missing, but officials agreed
that number of these undoubtedly
escaped the inferno and have not
yet reported.
Eighteen bodies had been identi-
fled at 10 O'Clock this morning and
turned over to relatives. The 9TH
ers were burned so badly that iden-
tlfication was impossible. All Of
the bodies recovered were taken
from the narrow stairway of the
school, where the men, women and
children were trapped in their fran
nc efforts to escape, according to
Welch.
The stairway strained and then
buekled under the heavy load Of so
many persons and precipitated many
INTO the raging inferno, causing adj
dltlonal deaths of those fighting to
escape to the entrance door.
About half Of the bodies recover.
ed are children. In some cases whole
families are wiped out; in others
the parents and older children are
gone and only small children re.
mained. Hardly a family has es-
capped the loss of at least one.
One Of the injured, Carl Hum.
phries, 30, who has been taken 10
hospital in Camden, was injured
when he jumped from a window,
but when he realized that his moth.
er remained in the seething furnace
he rushed back in an effort to
save her His efforts were unavail.
ing and he himself was shorribly
burned.
Eleven of the more seriously In.
Jured are being cared for In the
local hospital and in the homes near
the scene of the fire. Others. less
seriously injured, aided in the res.
cue work.
Coroner G. L. Dixon, of Kershaw
county, together with eleven mem.
bers or the Dixon family, was
among the lost. No effort will bo
made TO have new coroner ap-
pointed at this time, nor will an
inquest be held as thero were 80
many eye witnesses. necording ~