Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-30
Survivor Tells
'0f Fire Panic

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That was how Lawrence
OBrien. chairman of the oyster
roast arrangements committee,
described the pandemonium
caused by yesterdays fire in
Arundel Park Auditorium.
II saw men beating women to
get to door or a window.
Men and women shrieked and
screamed and cried"
The cheerful hubbub Of a
church benefit had suddenly
turned into the roaring and
cracking of an inferno and the
desperate screams of a brutal
stampede.
The first flames visible in the
160-by-80 foot hall were small
ones. near the southwestern
corner of the wooden ceiling. by
the kitchen, where the oysters
were being steamed.
Even some of the people who
saw the fire begin were more curl
Gus than alarmed.
II Was Fascinated"
At first, the eating and drink
ling and dancing went on.
Il was fascinated by the little
tongues of fame" said Cornelius
L. Bents. another member of the
St. Rose of Lima committee, who
was on duty in the cashiers cage.
on the east side Of the hall
1.-THE flames seemed so small,
so Insignificant.
But all of a sudden they grew
and spread along the ceiling,
gaining speed and size like a
swollen stream in flood.
"Soon they engulfed the whole
roof"
The change in the situation
came too fast for immediate fear.
Mr.. Bents said. But the moment
Iof incomprehension was fieeting
and then there was a general ex-
Iplosion of emotions.
| "A cloud of black smoke bill
lowed down. At the same time,
the lights went out.
Fatal Rush Begins
people began to panic and
they rushed for the windows and
doors"
| Mr. O'Brien was standing on
the elevated bandstand against
the south wall when he first saw
smoke coming from a heater in
the corner near the kitchen.
Il said quietly to the people
around me, Something must be
wrong
Il rushed out the door into the
fenced area where they steam
and roast oysters.
Two men were playing a tiny
stream of water from a garden
hose on the roof along which
flames were licking near the
kitchen.
II rushed back to see a man
going up a stepladder and open
ing a trapdoor in the ceiling near
where the main building and
'litchen meet"
Raises TrapdOOr
Charles Ecker OF 35ll Hor-
ton avenue. a 29-year-old off,
duty fireman from No. % Truck
Company, later said:
When I first saw the smoke,
I grabbed a ladder in the cor
ner Of the hall and climbed to
the ceiling ! raised a trapdoor
in the ceiling Just a couple of
inches. and a ball of fire shot
out and hit me in the face.
knocking me off the ladder.
Il grabbed a fire extinguisher
and started pumping away. 1t
didn't seem to help much. When
! looked around l saw most
people were already OUT I went
through a window"
There was binding incandes-
cent gas roaring from d ruptured
natural-gas pipe. about 3 inches
in diameter, near The kitchen
ceiling. when firefghters were
able to enter the kitchen through
the back door. according to
James Ernest of Lake shore Vol
unteer Fire Company.
I'VE found all the faucets
turned full on and the big cook
ing pots lying around, as though
they'd been used to try to douse
the blaze" Firefighter Ernest
said.
Il found a used carbon dioxide
extinguisher." said Firehghter
Howard Oden bf the same COM
pany.
He still looked dazed by the
sight Of the charred bodies that
we're found at the other end Of
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