Transcript Suffer the Children: The Collinwood Tragedy

Suffer the Children:
The Collinwood
Tragedy
By
Paul Rega MD, FACEP
Kelly Burkholder-Allen RN, MSEd
Objective
The purpose of this topic is to present an
American tragedy little-known to disaster
management professionals and the
public at-large and to demonstrate the
vulnerability of our children to
any unique situation, whether natural or
man-made, accidental or intentional.
Dedication
This presentation is dedicated to
the 174 students
and 2 teachers who perished in
this disaster and
to the citizens of Collinwood,
Ohio whose lives
were irrevocably changed
thereafter.
*There is mention in many accounts of an additional
individual; a rescuer, who perished in the fire
Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned
to repeat it.
George Santayana
Summary
On March 4, 1908, the Lakeview Elementary
School in Collinwood, Ohio was enveloped
in flames. Within thirty minutes, 174
students and 2 teachers perished. This was
the worst school fire in the history of the
United States up to that time.
Prologue
Before the Disaster
A Time of
Energy and Promise
Sunday school class
Views of Cleveland
Collinwood, Ohio
As Cleveland grew in importance so did
Collinwood. By 1908 it became an
enclave of 8,000 citizens many of them
immigrant Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs.
Immigrants undergoing
processing at Ellis Island
It was also the center of operations for
the Lake Shore and Southern Michigan
Railroad.
Collinwood
Round
House
Fire Departments
of Old
LAKEVIEW ELEMENTARY
Before the fire
Lakeview Elementary
Located on East 152nd Street
 Built in 1902
 Due to immigration, by 1908 the school
population swelled to more than 360.

Lakeview’s Design and
Architecture
3-Story edifice
 Constructed of wood save for its brick
façade: a construction similar to that all
over the country, especially in small towns
 Three exits: Front, back entrances and an
uncovered fire escape
 Hallways: Long and narrow
 Wooden stairways placed diagonally to exit
doors

Lakeview’s Design and
Architecture
To accommodate increased number of
students, a third floor auditorium was
converted into another classroom.
 Vestibule added to rear entrance to create
a cloakroom. This narrowed the exit
dimensions from 10’4” to 5’3”.
 Furnace located in basement directly
under first floor area leading to exit.

Lakeview was not inspected by the
State Fire Marshal, but that was not
unusual at that time. It did meet
the established building codes of
Cleveland.
The school had been inspected
and insured one year earlier by
the Cleveland Insurance Agency
and deemed a desirable risk.
Lakeview Elementary Fire Drills
Conducted three times a year
 For most of the students, the front
entrance was identified as the principal
route of escape.
 The last drill was conducted just three
weeks prior to the fire.

Principal Players in a Tragedy
Fred Hirter: Janitor
 Ethel Rose: Teacher
 Katherine Weiler: Teacher
 Grace Fisk: Teacher
 Wallace Upton: Parent
 C.G. McIlrath: Collinwood Police Chief
 W.A. Stevens: Fire escape builder

ACT ONE
The Fire
March 4, 1908
The day
began
with the
students
singing
“America”
The fire originated near the furnace
in the basement.
Fire officials determined that the fire was
accidental. Apparently, the furnace
pipes which were not properly insulated
were situated within two inches of the
wooden floor. Over time, this
placement dried out the wood to the
point that it became kindling and
ignited.
Between 9-9:45 AM,
smoke was detected
around the front
staircase adjacent to the
front entrance. Fred
Hirter, the janitor,
activated the fire alarm
located in a first floor
classroom and ran to
make sure that the front
and back doors were
opened.
Fred Hirter
Initially, the students from the first,
second, and third floors evacuated
easily enough out the main entrance in
keeping with their prior fire drill
activities. Matters were going smoothly
according to plan.
However, within a matter of minutes, the
basement fire began consuming the
floor in front of the main entrance.
That avenue of escape was now
blocked by a wall of smoke and flames.
ACT TWO
The Panic Begins
One parent, Wallace Upton succeeded in
rescuing 19 children. Yet he was unable to
save his own daughter. He saw her as she
breathed her last among her burnt and
trampled comrades.
The janitor lost three of his own.
Another parent tried to rescue one of his
children from a burning mound of corpses, but
only succeeded in pulling off her arms from
her incinerated body.
The personnel at the Lake Shore shops
were rapidly made aware of the
situation. The shops were closed and
everyone ran to the holocaust. Many of
them were parents of the school
children.
The managers sent along supplies of
stretchers, blankets, and other
resources. The Lake Shore surgeon, Dr.
W.H. Williams, also responded and
assisted with the organization and
dispersal of those resources.
The American railroad industry as
personified by those who came from
the Lake Shore shops had been
victimized time and time again by rail
disasters in that era. Those past
experiences compelled rail managers to
store needed disaster supplies for a
potential catastrophe.
“… the children lay five or six
deep, the fire had already reached
them, and I could see the flames
catch first one and then another…
the fire swept through the hall,
springing from one child to another
catching their hair and the dresses
of the girls. The cries were dreadful
to hear.”
Henry Ellis, rescuer
“...those (students) who could,
stretched out their arms to me
and cried for me to help them.”
Ms. Goldman, teacher;
Later accused of
abandoning her class
“I saw my little Helen
among them (children
trapped). I tried
to pull her out, but
the flames
drove me back. I had
to leave
my little girl to die.”
Fred Hirter, Janitor/Parent
“I reached in and stroked her
(trapped daughter) head…trying
to keep the fire away from her
till a heavy piece of glass fell
on me, cutting my hand nearly
off. Then I fell back and my
girl died before my face.”
Mrs. John Philits, Parent
The arrival of the Collinwood Fire
Department twenty minutes after the
alarm was sounded raised the hopes of
the frantic parents.
Hope of deliverance soon changed to
anger and despair.
With the traditional escape route blocked
the teachers tried to re-direct the
students out the first floor windows, up
the stairs to the fire escape, and out
the rear entrance.
Many of the children were unable to
deviate from what they learned during
past drills. Ominously, the fear and the
panic and the terror grew and spread
from child to child.
The rear entrance
whose
dimensions were
already halved by
a makeshift
vestibule, was
narrowed further
when one of the
doors closed.
The escape width
was now down to
approximately
2ft. 7 in.
The scene at the rear entrance became
horrific. Children jammed into the
vestibule screamed, writhed, and
suffocated as little bodies began to pile
up on each other. Children from above
hurled themselves from the staircase
banisters onto the growing pile below.
The narrow hallways and staircases
became unintentional flues funneling
smoke and fire to all areas of the
schoolhouse.
As terror overcame authority, many of the
children allowed themselves to be
enveloped by the piles of bodies, those
dead and about to die, wedged into
doors and windows.
Students Mary Ridgeway, Anna Roth , and
Gertrude Davis escaped the
encroaching fire by jumping to their
deaths from third floor windows.
Most of the teachers escaped
unscathed assisting in the
escape of roughly half of their
charges.
Teacher, Katherine Weiler,
however, died at Glenville
Hospital of burns she
sustained while re-directing
her students down the fire
escape.
Katherine Weiler
Another teacher, Grace Fiske, was
found dead in the rubble among her
students. Witnesses testified that she
was at one of the windows shielding
her students as she was guiding them
out of the windows.
ACT THREE
The
Response
Nearby residents were quickly made
aware of the impending tragedy. As
they descended onto the site their
olfactory and visual senses were
assaulted by the smoke and flames and
by children hurling themselves from
upper story windows. Their ears
suffered the cries and screams of the
injured and dying.
Many of these first responders were the
parents. Some escorted the survivors
away from the site. Others tore at the
building to attempt rescue.
The arrival of
onlookers and
rescuers
“Send help. The Collinwood
School is burning.”
The Collinwood
telegrapher alerting
Cleveland within a
few minutes of the
rescue call
A Funeral Pyre
With prosperity came selfassurance and Collinwood rejected
any annexation measures with
Cleveland. Rather, she relied upon
her own citizens, resources, and
infrastructure
to maintain and
sustain herself.
Collinwood High School
A key ingredient in this infrastructure
was the Collinwood Fire Department.
It was responsible for the safety and
protection of its 8,000 inhabitants,
as well as for the millions of dollars of
development
located over
43 miles
of city
streets.
One hour after the alarm was sounded,
Cleveland Engine Company #7 arrived
on scene with aerial ladders that could
pluck the remaining children from their
third story perches.
With sad irony, it was at that same time
that the second and third stories fell
victim to the flames and collapsed onto
the debris of the decimated first floor.
Cleveland
Firefighters
Police Chief C.G. McIlrath had three
children who attended the school.
While performing his duties, he
witnessed one of his children lead
fellow students to safety and then
disappear into the flames. For six
hours, the Chief remained at his post
not knowing whether his children were
dead or alive.
While onlookers worked with officials to fight
the fire and to save any victims, others
continued to vent their frustrations on both
police and fire personnel.
Amidst chaos
the search
continues
Why?



Their ladders did not extend beyond
the second story.
They forgot their axes– a crucial piece
of equipment for breaking through
blocked doors and windows.
The water pressure in their hoses was
ineffective beyond the first floor.
Fire apparatus
sending forth
a weak stream
of water at the
school
Futility reigns
A Daisy-Chain of
Parents and Responders
Carrying out the
Remains
The rescue effort slowly became one of body
recovery. Officials, parents, and
bystanders began to sift through the
charred debris to find blackened bones and
half-consumed bodies. The remains were
brought out in containers no bigger than
baskets. They were placed into the twenty
or so ambulances “dead wagons” that
were lined up at the back of the
schoolhouse.
A Collinwood “Dead Wagon”
During the recovery process, it was estimated
that the pile of bodies trapped at the rear
entrance approached 5 ft. high. Many of
them had died from asphyxiation and crush
before any of the flames had reached them.
Rear
Entrance
By 1:30 PM the fire
was officially
declared over.
Shock and Disbelief
The crowd continues to build
The shell of a corpse
The Cleveland
Plain Dealer
March 7, 1908
“The construction (of the
schoolhouse)…was an outrage…
the poor little children were
caught in a veritable trap and
held and crushed until burned
to death.”
Mr. Burke,
County Coroner
Fingerpointing
City council blamed for shelving a motion to
upgrade the fire department.
 School Board blamed for an oversized school
population and for poorly planned and executed fire
drills.
 Collinwood citizens blamed for voting down
annexation measures and bond issues.
 W.A. Stevens, builder of the school’s fire escape,
advised the school board that at least three fire
escapes should have been built; advice that was
rejected due to unwillingness to spend money.

Official conclusions from
local boards of inquiry
Given existing laws and regulations, no
person or agency was to be blamed for
the tragedy.
 The true cause was the panic of the
children while attempting to evacuate.

An Touch of Irony

The school board awarded the contract to
design and construct the new school to
Searles, Hirsch, & Gavin -- the same firm
that designed the old school.
Repercussions in Ohio
Duties of the Ohio State Inspector of
Workshops and Factories expanded to
include oversight of schools
 Addition of 10 additional deputy inspectors
 All future school construction to be
approved by the Chief Fire Inspector

Repercussions in Ohio

Within a year, laws were passed that
mandated
– Frequent, adequate fire drills
– Fire safety instruction to children
– Every private/public school teacher to spend
thirty minutes/month to teach students
(ages:6-14 yr.) fire rules to be developed by
the Fire Marshal.
Ultimately, the Collinwood tragedy
created a groundswell of activities and
measures that led to the condemnation
of unsafe buildings, alterations in fire
escape design, development of safer
exits and devices such as “panic
bars”, and relocation of furnaces
to safer locations.
Donations to the griefstricken came from across
the country. Noteworthy
were donations from
the schoolchildren of
Cleveland, a travelling
vaudevillian by the name of
Harry Houdini, and survivors
from the recent General
Slocum catastrophe.
General Slocum
Houdini
A bill to provide $25,000 to assist
with the burials was passed by the
Ohio General Assembly. The
Collinwood Board of Trade added
$3,000 more.
Reverberations Across America
Illinois Board of Health ordered the closure
of all schools with doors that opened inward
and had combustible fire escapes.
 Cleveland school board mandated that
school basements be fireproof, that
staircases be constructed of iron, that fire
escapes be enclosed, and that vestibules
have no inner doors.
 Similar actions took place in Indiana, Kansas
City, and Pittsburgh among others.

Reports from New York City
At about the same time, a fire developed in a
school in lower Manhattan. Over 1,000 students
were safely evacuated in two minutes. The
successful operation was the result of fireproof
construction, broad hallways, and the conducting
of fire drills every 2-4 months.
 However, a few weeks after Collinwood, NYC Fire
Chiefs reported that schools over 10 years old had
defective doors, wooden staircases, and
malfunctioning fire extinguishers.

Reverberations Overseas
London reported their schools harbored similar
conditions that were found at Lake View.
 Parisian authorities decreed that fire drills be
conducted more frequently than once a month.
 The German Press having witnessed the death toll
in the Iroquois Theatre and General Slocum
catastrophes were exceedingly harsh in their
judgments about American concerns for safety.

Meanwhile, Days of Sadness…
Loss of Innocence
Each day, scores of funeral processions led by
small white coffins traversed the streets of
Collinwood.
 Due to the numbers of dead, hearses were
unavailable. Special “funeral” streetcars
draped in black and white were substituted.
 One coffin contained the remains of three
playmates who were found in the fire huddled
together.

Glenville Hospital cared for a number of
the injured victims. At the end of the
day, this hospital sheltered the remains
of seven victims. Little else is known
about the numbers who were injured,
but survived.
The destination of most of the “dead
wagons” was the storehouse at the
Lake shore shops. It would be the
temporary morgue for the next twentyfour hours.
Remains of the dead
along the storehouse
floor
Identifying the dead
At this “morgue”:
Police and shop personnel stood guard as the
blanketed remains were placed in rows of ten.
One railroad worker was in charge of each row.
Tags were placed on each of the remains to
identify gender.
One family at a time was escorted in to identify
loved ones.
Physicians and nurses were arriving to assist
families both medically and psychologically.
The second floor of the storehouse became the
“hospital”.
Victim identification was no easy task. In
many cases, identification was
accomplished by circumstantial
evidence. Eight-year-old Danny Clark's
remains were identified by his favorite
bright green marble located on his
torso. Nine-year-old Russell Newberry
was identified from a watch chain
fragment. Recent dental fillings and
shreds of new clothes helped to
identify others.
Hour after grisly hour, the process
continued. Once a loved one was
identified it would be wrapped in white
and the family escorted out to make
way for the next family’s ordeal.
Police Chief McIlrath, at one point, told
that one of his children was dead, went
to the morgue, identified the remains,
then went back to his duties well into
the night.
By 4PM, 165 bodies were arrayed on the
storehouse floor. All but 56 were
identified by midnight.
These were later
removed to the
town hall. In
time all but
nineteen bodies
were identified.
Town Hall
Lost Innocence
The Next 24 hours
Nearly 25,000 people converge upon Collinwood.
American Amusement Co. begins selling souvenir
postcards of the scene to the public.
The Young Women’s Christians Association of
Cleveland send 100 volunteers to care for the
families and the injured.
Two hundred members of the Salvation Army arrive.
Various church groups, doctors, and nurses also
come to assist.
Crowd control provided by members of the
Collinwood and Cleveland Police Departments.
The Next Few Days
As one segment of the Collinwood family begins to
bury its dead, the coroner’s office, the school
board, and the village council begin their series of
investigations.
The janitor is singled out by the community as
having played a part in the fire. Rumors spread
that he was not at his post and that he had
locked the doors of escape. Fearing his life was in
danger, police provided guards to protect him from
the hundreds gathered at his house. Only the
sight of the white caskets of his children issuing
from his house forced the throng to reconsider any
thoughts of revenge.
EPILOGUE
Recovery
A Funeral Procession
Another white
casket leaving home
one last time
Horse drawn hearse with a white coffin
Lake View Cemetery and the burial
site of a number of the school fire
victims
Close-up of the
Collinwood
Elementary
School Monument
at the Lake View
Cemetery
The grave
layout of the
victims at
Lakeview
Cemetery.
The top row
contains the
unidentified.
Grace Fiske is
at the lower left
on the bottom
row.
Note that many of the
names are of Middle
and Eastern European
ancestry.
A Graveside
Casket
The City of Collinwood purchased a common
grave at Lake View Cemetery for the interment of
the 21 children who remained unidentified and
unclaimed.
White
Caskets
In Array
Teacher and pupils: Together in
death and forever
Lakeview Cemetery graves registration card for
one of the unidentified children
Another Lakeview Cemetery graves registration card
Amidst the dirt
and fallen leaves
lies embedded
a grave marker of
one of the
unidentified
children.
The Memorial Elementary School
was built on the site of the
previous school.
1910
Boarded-up entrance of the now-defunct
Memorial School
1909
A memorial garden created
Despite a general ignorance
surrounding this tragedy, efforts
continue to assure that the victims
are not forgotten.
Note: Only known
record that a rescuer
was also killed on
that day.
Marie Pengler,
the last known
Collinwood
survivor
memento
mori
Bibliography
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