1913 — Dec 24, fire scare, Italian Hall trampling & suffocation deaths, Calumet, MI — 73
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 1-23-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
–80 New York Times. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913.
–75 Indus. Com. WI. “Why the State Regulates Buildings,” Safety Engineering, 1914, p. 283.
–74 New York Times. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913.
–73 Blizzard, William C. When Miners March. 2010, p. 101.
–73 MLive, MI. “1913 Italian Hall Disaster was a Michigan Christmas Eve tragedy.” 12-24-2019.
–59 Children (youngest was 2)
–73 Michigan Historical Markers, “Italian Hall”
–73 National Park Service. “Remembering the Italian Hall Tragedy.” Keweenaw…Park.
–72 Decatur Daily Review (IL). “Theater Death Toll in Past Disasters…,” Jan 30, 1922, p.1.
–72 Wickware. The American Year Book: A Record of Events and Progress, 1914. 1915. 797.
–73 Blanchard. We choose to follow MLive, MI Historical Markers, and the National Park
Service which show 73 lives lost.
Narrative Information
Blizzard: “On Christmas Eve, 1913, the wives and children of striking copper miners at Calumet, Mich., were having a Christmas party in a schoolhouse. Some 700 children were at the party when a member of an operator group which called itself the ‘Citizens Alliance’ yelled ‘Fire!’ at the top of his lungs. In the ensuing scramble, 72 women and children were trampled to death. The miners later refused to accept money as recompense, and 150 of the ‘citizens’ beat up strike leader Charles H. Hoyer, then president of the West Virginia Federation of Miners, shot him three times in the back and threw him on a train with a warning not to return to the state of Michigan. A local newspaper told of the incident, and was promptly suppressed.” (Blizzard, William C. When Miners March. 2010, p. 101.)
Michigan Historical Markers: “Inscription:
“The Italian Hall. The building that stood on this site was called the Italian Hall, and was home to the Societa Mutua Beneficenza Italiana, which aided immigrants and others in need. Built in 1908, the hall housed a saloon and an Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company store on the first floor. A main hall with a dining room, a barroom, and a stage were on the second floor. The hall was the site of one of Michigan’s worst tragedies. On Christmas Eve 1913, seventy-three people died due to false alarm of “Fire!” When the building was razed in 1984, the archway from its main entrance was saved. In 1989, the Village of Calumet, with the help of Operating Engineers Local 324 and the Friends of Italian Hall, created this park dedicated to those who died in 1913.
“Italian Hall Tragedy. By December 1913, thousands of area copper miners had been on strike for five months. They were fighting for union recognition, safer working conditions, shorter work days and better pay. On Christmas Eve hundreds gathered on the second floor of the Italian Hall to attend a holiday party for strikers’ families. As the children filed
“Although there was no fire, seventy-three persons died while attempting to escape down a stairwell that had doors that opened inward. Over half of those who died were children between the ages of six and ten. The perpetrator of the tragedy was never identified. The strike ended in April 1914.” (Michigan Historical Markers, “Italian Hall”)
Newspaper
Dec 24, NYT: “On December 24, 1913, area copper miners had been on strike for five months. The miners were fighting for better pay, shortened work days, safer working conditions and union recognition.” (Michigan Historical Markers, “Italian Hall”) Subsequently, Calumet had “been the scene of…much disorder by reason of the copper strike.”
“For many days the children of the copper mine strikers had waited expectantly for the Christmas tree exercises that had been arranged by the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Western Federation of Miners [at the Italian Hall]. The entertainment was set for the early evening, and the hall, which is on the second floor, was soon filled to its capacity….Of the 700 persons in the hall more than three-fourths were children, many of them having gone there without their parents….
“The children selected to give Christmas recitations and sing carols had finished their part of the programme, and the man selected to play the part of Santa Claus had appeared to distribute the presents that were piled around the large illuminated tree.
“The children were told to march up the aisles to the tree, so that the presents could be handed to them. The aisles were filled with the boys and girls… While several hundred miners and their wives looked on, [their] children pressed eagerly toward the stage to receive Christmas presents….
“…a large… intoxicated man staggered to the door of the little hall and shouted ‘Fire!’[1] Mrs. Caesar, who was near the door, realized the danger that would follow the cry, and seizing the man by the shoulders she tried to push him out. It was useless. The man wrested himself from her grasp and ran away, but the cry of ‘Fire!’ was repeated throughout the room….The word was shouted in several languages as parents sprang to their feet and rushed forward to get their children….
“In a fraction of a minute nearly all of the 700 persons in the hall made a dash for the…[primary] exit….The weaker were thrown to the floor, and those behind tried to climb over those in front of them….The grown person trampled the children under foot and dozens of the smaller children were killed at the first onrush of the crowd. One man was seen to stoop to pick up his little girl, only to be pushed forward with such great force that he fell on her and crushed her to death. A woman who seized three small boys was crushed with them as she sought to shelter them in her arms….
“The main door of the hall opened on a landing, and there was a small cloakroom about ten feet square at one side of the main door. The loss of life was heavy at the small door of this room. The rush apparently turned many against the door of this room and crushed them to death within the doorway. The greatest number of dead in any one place, however, was at the bottom of the stairs. Those who reached the stairs first evidently were hurled to the bottom by those behind, and in this fashion the stairway was filled to the ceiling. More than half the victims were killed by suffocation….
“The stairway was choked with dead and dying, while the building was fairly rocking with the rush of the throng and the shrieks of the terror-stricken people….Then the physical impossibility of further movement brought the panic-stricken crowd to its senses. It was realized too late that there was no fire…
“There was a fire escape at the rear of the building, but only those who were very near it could make any use of it until after the fatal rush was over. Probably not more than a hundred persons escaped the first rush by way of this fire escape. A score more jumped from the windows. Most of them escaped without injury because it was only a few feet from the windows to the ground….
“The principle exit was a narrow stairway at the back of the hall. When this had been cleared of the bodies that filled it to the top, and a quick accounting had been made it was found that seventy-four bodies had been piled up beside the building. It is thought that a dozen others were carried away by…. parents and friends before the authorities could gain control of the throng….
“This disposition of the bodies was found inadvisable because of the hysteria it caused among the spectators, and the bodies were carried back into the hall as soon as the crowd was out.
“In an hour nearly everyone in Calumet was as near the scene as it was possible to get…fathers and mothers soon rushed to the scene and added to the confusion. They did not understand what had taken place and hindered the rescuers by trying to force their way into the hall….The police formed a cordon about the place and kept back the crowd. After much effort a lane was opened through the crowd and the bodies of the children were carried through ranks of moaning and wailing parents to Red Jacket Village Hall. It was many hours before all the bodies were identified. During the confusion several bodies of children were wrongly identified by mothers and taken away only to be returned later by parents, who had found their own children safe. In other cases parents ran about for some time uncertain whether their children were dead or alive. Many mothers fainted while fathers cursed all those who interfered with their mad search for lost children….
“There was not much work for the many doctors who hurried to the scene as soon as the alarm was spread, for those who were not killed in the first rush were held upright and safe by the very force of the onrush toward the exit. Only three injured persons were taken to hospitals and a few went home with the assistance of friends.
“Calumet…is almost in a state of terror to-night as the result of the catastrophe. Every policeman and detective in this region is searching to-night for the man who have the false alarm of fire, and if he is caught he probably will be lynched…. There was much wild talk among the striking min34ers to-night, and some of them said they believed the man was a member of the Citizens’ Alliance, recently organized to restore law and order in the mining field during the strike. This charge was quickly denied by Alliance members, hundreds of whom were early on the scene aiding in the removal of bodies and caring for the injured.” (NYT. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913)
“The dead that were piled up beside the hall included thirty-seven girls, nineteen boys, thirteen women and five men….
“Eighty persons – fifty-six of whom were children – were trampled to death…” (NYT. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913)
Sources
Blizzard, William C. (Edited by Wess Harris). When Miners March. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2010. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=b5-RE_XdH_IC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Decatur Daily Review, IL. “Theater Death Toll in Past Disasters Shows Heavy Totals,” 1-30- 1922, p.1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=1245857
Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. “Why the State Regulates Buildings,” Safety Engineering, Vol. 28, No’s 1-6, July-December, 1914, p. 283. Accessed 9-22-2017 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=a9YMAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions:LCCNsc80000582&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Michigan Historical Markers. “Italian Hall.” Accessed 1-23-2025 at: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=76300
MLive, MI. “1913 Italian Hall Disaster was a Michigan Christmas Eve tragedy.” 12-24-2019. Accessed 1-23-2025 at: https://www.mlive.com/news/2017/12/1913_italian_hall_disaster_was.html
National Fire Protection Association. “Loss of Life in Theatre Fires.” Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1, July, 1930, p. 76.
National Park Service. “Remembering the Italian Hall Tragedy.” Keweenaw National Historical Park. Accessed 1-23-2025 at: https://www.nps.gov/articles/remembering-the-italian-hall-tragedy.htm
New York Times. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913. Accessed at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980DE6DF113FE633A25756C2A9649D946296D6CF
Wickware, Francis G. (Ed.). “Chronology and Necrology,” The American Year Book: A Record of Events and Progress, 1914. New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1915. Digitized by Google. Accessed 1-23-2025 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ooMWIdAqXLsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:LCCN11001626#v=onepage&q=&f=false
[1] “It was said by those near the door that the man came up the stairs from a saloon below and that he was intoxicated.” (New York Times. “XMAS-Tree Panic Costs 80 Lives.” December 25, 1913.)