1924 — Dec 24, Fire, School No. 42, Babbs Switch School District, Hobart, OK — 36

 

–36  Barlay, Stephen. Fire: An International Report. 1973, pp. 25-26.

–36  National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.

–36  National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.

–36  San Antonio Express (TX). “Thirty-Six Burn to Death at Party,” 12-25-1924, p. 1.

–32  NFPA. “The Hobart School Fire.” Quarterly of the NFPA, V18, N3, Jan 1925, p. 219.

 

Narrative Information

 

NFPA: “Nearly every precaution for safety to life and against fire was neglected in the building where this appalling tragedy occurred. The newspaper account and the accompanying pictures make most of them apparent. Some of these were:

 

  • The building itself was of the lightest kind of frame construction —the least fire-resistive type of building.

 

  • For illumination gasoline lamps were provided. During the first moments of the fire these exploded, accelerating the already swift progress of the flames throughout the wooden crematory.

 

  • Open flame candles swung from the boughs of the tinder-dry cedar Christmas tree. Here was a hazard so well known that it is astounding that no one present recognized the danger. This was the fatal hazard.

 

  • The building was crowded beyond reason. Reports set the num­ber of people in it at between 200 and 250 persons. Even 200 in a room 25 by 36 feet is several times what any law would permit.

 

  • The one door opened inward. It was a veritable “check-valve,” making it next to impossible for a surging crowd to pass through. The state fire marshal had vigorously condemned such construction in schools, but could not act because not backed up by any building code.

 

  • But one exit was provided to the building. The windows, which might have been used for emergency means of egress, were nearly as heavily barred as a prison. These barriers were placed at the direction of the school board to keep campers from breaking into the building and to protect the panes from youthful ravagers. They were deliberately and securely bolted in place.

 

  • Not a single provision to take care of a fire should one start had been made. There was not even a fire pail. The blaze was attacked in its incipiency by wraps and bare hands, and was probably spread rather than checked.

 

  • Finally, those who had escaped from the building had to stand by and see the fire burn unhindered, for there was not a hose line or even a drop of water in the vicinity….

 

“”The tragedy of the schoolhouse could have been prevented if Okla­homa had enacted a state building code,” said Fire Marshal Connolly, but, he reported, time after time, the Oklahoma Legislature had killed such a code in its committees. He will ask the next legislature to pass- such a law.”  (NFPA.  “The Hobart School Fire.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 18, No. 3, January 1925, pp. 219-223.)

 

Newspaper

 

Dec 25: “Hobart, Okla., Dec. 25 – (AP) – Thirty-six bodies had been taken from the ruins of the Babb Switch School, which was destroyed by fire while a Christmas program was in progress, at 12:30 o’clock Thursday morning….The school is known as district school No. 42, and the community in which it is located is Babb Switch. It is about 75 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, in Kiowa County….

 

“The fire broke out at the close of the Christmas Eve program given by the children of the school when a candle on a Christmas tree ignited a ball of cotton in the top of the tree.  There was a dash to extinguish the flame and the tree was turned over scattering the burning cotton.  In an instant there was a rush for the one door and the windows.  The latter were found to be securely covered with heavy woven wire and efforts to break through it were futile.  The school room which was 24 by 36 feet in size was packed, persons who escaped declaring no less than 200 spectators were jammed into every nook to watch the children of the neighborhood as they presented their Christmas exercises.

 

“Most of the dead are believed to have been trampled in the rush for the door.  Unable to crawl upon the heels of the scrambling audience they were caught in the flames that within a few minutes enveloped the flimsy backwoods structure….

 

“The school…was in a remote section.  There was no well on the school house grounds and no water was available to fight the flames.  Three automobiles which had been backed against the building to protect them from a 10 above zero wind caught fire and burned.  Others were pressed into service and rushed injured to Hobart and to nearby farm houses….

 

“The building was burned to the ground in about an hour from the time the tiny candle first dropped its fatal spark.  But with the structure a blacked ruin it was still impossible to effectively begin the removal of the dead because of the heat of the ashes. Bodies that were clearly visible and near the edge of the wreckage were taken out, but those farther in had to be left until the embers cooled.  The fire was the worst disaster of its kind to visit Oklahoma since the State asylum for insane was burned at Norman in April, 1918 with a loss of 39 lives.”  (San Antonio Express (TX). “Thirty-Six Burn to Death at Party,” December 25, 1924, p. 1.)

 

Sources

 

Barlay, Stephen. Fire: An International Report. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press, 1973.

 

National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996. Accessed 2010 at:  http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=1352&itemID=30955&URL=Research%20&%20Reports/Fire%20statistics/Key%20dates%20in%20fire%20history&cookie%5Ftest=1

 

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

 

National Fire Protection Association. “The Hobart School Fire.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 18, No. 3, January 1925, pp. 219-223.

 

San Antonio Express, TX. “Thirty-Six Burn to Death at Party,” 12-25-1924, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=68213001