1908 — Mar 4, Fire & Trampling, Lakeview Elementary School, Collinwood, OH –175-176

— 178 Smith. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America… 1978, p. 118.
— 176 Ohio History Central, OH Hist. Connection. Collinwood School Fire. Accessed 6-1-2020.
–173 Children.
— 2 Teachers.
— 1 Rescuer.
— 175 Collinwoodfire.org. Introduction: Telling Stories About The Fire. Accessed 6-1-2020.
–172 Children.
— 2 Teachers.
— 1 Rescuer.
— 175 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 325.
–173 Children.
— 2 Teachers.
— 175 Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 124.
— 175 Jablonski. “The Neighborhood Never Forgets: 90 Years After….” Sun News, 10-8-1998
— 175 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— 175 NFPA. “Major School Disasters.” Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2, Oct 1939, pp. 163-164.
— 175 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
— 174 Case Western RU. Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. “The Collinwood School Fire.”
–172 Students.
— 2 Teachers
— 174 Everett. Complete Story of the Collingwood School Disaster. Cleveland, OH: 1908.
— 174 Lima News, OH. “Fire is Fourth Major Disaster.” 2-3-1946, p. 1.
— 173 Industrial Com. of WI. “Why the State Regulates Buildings,” Safety Engineering, 1914, 283.
— 172 Pepper. “Phases of Fire Prevention Teachers Should Know,” Safety Engineering, 31/4, 1916, 200.
— 165 New York Times. “165 Children Perish in Fire,” March 5, 1908.
–>162 Insurance Engineering. Vol. 15, No’s 1-6, January-June 1908, p. 255.
— 161 Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. EM DAT Database.

Narrative Information

Ohio History Central: “The Collinwood School Fire took place on March 4, 1908. Lakeview School was located in the Cleveland suburb of Collinwood. A fire began in the school’s basement. Because Lakeview School was built of wood, the entire building was quickly engulfed in flames. All of the exits were blocked by fire and smoke. The result was one of the worst tragedies in Ohio history. In all, 173 children, two teachers, and one rescuer died in the fire.

“The Collinwood School Fire inspired local, state, and national governments to pass new building codes to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. The community of Collinwood raised funds to rebuild the school, making the new building a model for safety standards in that era.” (Ohio History Central, Ohio History Connection. “Collinwood School Fire.” Accessed 6-1-2020.)

Elliott: “Within three months after that fire [Collinwood] a plan for an exact duplicate of the building was submitted to the State department [of Ohio] for approval. Does it look as if the author of the plan had profited by the sad experience of Collinwood?

“In the burning of the Collinwood school the principal cause for the sacrifice of 160 helpless children was due to the enlarged hall space between the foot of the main stairway and the door opening to the school yard. The stairway was but 6 feet wide, the hallway 12 feet, and the doorway 6 feet wide. The crowd of children was under pressure on the stairway. This pressure was reduced when it reached the en¬larged hallway and the crowd expanded. The expansion formed a human arch in front of the doorway, closing them as a means of egress.” (Elliott, “The Need of State Building Codes.” Safety Engineering, V26, N3, Sep, 1913, 142-143.)

Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: “Nineteen bodies could not be identified and were buried in a common grave in Lake View Cemetery, along with 150 students whose identity was known….The fleeing children became wedged tightly on the stairs behind a set of inner vestibule doors which were narrower than the outer doors. The horror of the Collinwood fire caused numerous school inspections across the country, which resulted in stricter laws.” (Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. “The Collinwood School Fire.” )

Insurance Engineering 1908: “More Than 160 Lives Lost in a Primary Public School Building – The Fire Started From a Trivial Cause in the Basement-Exits Inadequate and Unsafe Safety of Life in School Buildings – The Fire Record.

“The lives of two teachers and more than 160 young children were sacrificed in a fire that wiped out a public school building in Collinwood, a suburb of Cleveland, on March 4. This terrible loss of life happened in a few minutes. The cause of the fire was trivial—a steam-pipe was too near to woodwork. And yet, after the usual coroner’s inquest, no one could be held responsible for the disaster.

“About 340 pupils and ten teachers were accommodated in a three-story brick building of very ordinary construction, with only two exits, one at the front of the structure and the other at the rear, the hallway running through the center.

“The fire started in the basement, and was first noticed by some one living near the school. An alarm was given by tele¬phone. Cleveland sent an engine company and a hook and ladder truck, on request for assistance, the Cleveland firemen having to cover a distance of about three miles to reach the burning school.

“Collinwood has a population of about 10,000, and it is soon to be annexed to Cleveland. It is said that the annexation, which will mean better public fire protection, would have taken place some time ago but for the want of interest in the project on the part of some of the village officials. The public fire protection was typical of many small towns. There was a gasoline engine, a chemical engine, a hose wagon with 1,200 feet of hose, and a village ladder truck. None of the members was paid and no one was permanently stationed at fire headquarters. The horses worked on the streets when not needed for hauling the apparatus to fires.

“For alarms of fire the whistle on the electric lighting sta¬tion was depended upon. One report said that when the alarm for the recent fire was given, the horses were more than a mile away from the station and that twenty-five minutes passed before the first stream of water was thrown on the fire. The fire engine was useless at first for the want of some one who understood how to run it, and hydrant pressure had to be resorted to for the time being. The fire apparatus generally was said to be in poor condition, and there was no dis¬cipline among the members of the department.

“The coroner exonerated the janitor of any responsibility, and gave it as his opinion that the fire started in a closet under the front stairs, from overheated steam-pipes located too near to woodwork. The heavy loss of life, the coroner said, was due to the faulty construction of the building—a partition in front of the stairway made it necessary for the children to make a turn in trying to get to the doors.” (Insurance Engineering. Vol. 15, No’s 1-6, Jan-June 1908, p. 255.)

Insurance Engineering: “The day after the public school fire at Collinwood the Board of Education of Greater New York adopted resolutions calling for a report on the condition of the school buildings in the different boroughs, respecting safety of life in the event of fire, and authorizing the superintendent of schools to close such build¬ings as were found unsafe.

“A report made on March 25 by Superintendent of Buildings C. B. J. Snyder contained facts and figures of considerable inter¬est to fathers and mothers. Out of a total of 511 public school buildings 429 were classed as non-fireproof — buildings that con¬tain elements of combustion that would endanger the lives of the young occupants. Two buildings were ordered closed pending the providing of proper exits, etc., as were also from one to four¬teen classrooms in eighteen other buildings for similar reasons. In twenty-three buildings it was recommended that the normal number of pupils occupying the assembly rooms be reduced one-half. An appropriation of $1,000,000 has been assured with which to begin to make necessary improvements, but three times that amount was said to be needed.” (Insurance Engineering. “New York’s Public Schools.” Vol. 15, No’s 1-6, Jan-Jun 1908, 259.)

Insurance Engineering: “Just after the Collinwood School tragedy, a prominent metropolitan newspaper printed the following editorial on this unnecessary loss of life:

A spasm of horrified emotion has passed over the country, as a consequence of the deaths of a crowd of children in the fire which destroyed the Collinwood School, at Cleveland. The horror is natural. It is a credit to the country. But the fire and its results were the natural effects of a succession of causes which discredit the country because they are characteristic of the country. The horror and the sympathy are human; they are com¬mon to all civilized communities; the recklessness which caused the unspeakable disaster is American. It has no counterpart elsewhere.

The city authorities, the school authorities, all were negligent. Behind their negligence stands the great, gap¬ing negligence of the public, the same negligence that causes annually in the United States more accidental deaths and injuries than three great wars.

There is a terrific loss of life and limb in this country from preventable causes. No other land shows anything like it, or anything approaching it. This is not because of the vastness of our population, but because of its careless¬ness. We are the most careless people on earth. We permit a looseness of conditions, a recklessness of method, or a method of recklessness which would not be tolerated in Great Britain or Germany, or France. This laxity runs on our railroads, pervades our coal mines, meanders in our mills, asserts itself in the slovenliness of our cities and our vacant lot’s and is traced directly to our homes along the icy sidewalks to our front doors and the doors of our churches and public institutions. The average American cares no more about the conditions outside the walls of his home than he cares about the conditions on the most distant planet. We are indifferent and unashamed. The spasms of public horror are soon over and forgotten. They accomplish nothing.

“This arraignment of the American people applies with equal force to our fire loss and ought to bring the blush of shame to every public spirited citizen. (Insurance Engineering. Vol. 16, No. 1, July 1908, pp. 34-35; newspaper quoted not named.)

Jablonski: “On March 4, 1908, the worst school fire in American history consumed Lakeview Elementary School in Collinwood, taking the lives of 172 children, two teachers, and one local resident…. On that fateful day, a fire started in the basement of the seven-year old Lakeview Elementary building. The wooden building was soon engulfed in flames as the fire bell was sounded. At the sound of the bell and the realization that this was no drill, the children inside the building panicked and rushed down the stairs to the only fire escape, located at the bottom of the back stairway.” (Jablonski, 1998)

NFPA, 1909: “Notwithstanding the lessons taught by the Collinwood School disaster, it would appear that comparatively little has been done to improve the conditions and safeguard the lives of our children. It is true that in some localities improvements have been made, such as fire escapes, chemical ex¬tinguishers, fire drills, etc., and in a few cases automatic sprinklers have been installed. The fact remains that the large majority of our schools are unsafe, poorly constructed, and without proper protection.

“It would seem that the only solution is the passing of state laws re¬quiring all school buildings to be either of fire-proof construction or equipped with automatic sprinklers as well as providing other well recog¬nized safeguards. In a single copy of the Journal of Commerce a few days ago there was mention of three schoolhouse fires, one of which oc¬curred while school was in session and seriously endangered the lives of the pupils. Is it not time to act?” (National Fire Protection Association. Editorial, Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association. Vol. 2, No. 3, Jan 1909, 326.)

NFPA, 1913: “Following the Collinwood fire and holocaust, cities in the vicinity of Ohio were forced to consider fire protection in connection with their schoolhouses. Cleveland decided to spend its money upon fire escapes, fireproof boiler houses and special exits, although the General Fire Extinguisher Company went so far as to equip the basement of the St. Clair Street School free of cost [with sprinkler system], and operate impressive illustrative tests thereon. The authorities in the city of Buffalo went somewhat further and equipped the basements of sixty-five of its school buildings with pipes and sprinklers. At the time of these installations the local under¬writers were skeptical as to the proper maintenance of these partial equip¬ments, particularly during those periods when the schools were not in session. Subsequent inspections of these properties have confirmed the underwriters’ fears in this respect, a considerable number of equipments being found shut off or inoperative, with no satisfactory explanation.

“It has always been the feeling of the engineers of our Association, founded sometimes on bitter experience, that a sprinkler system may represent false security where it is not kept under rigid inspection. While undoubtedly it would be an immense gain if all basements in the congested districts were equipped with automatic sprinklers, the full value of such protection could not be secured without rigid inspection continuously maintained.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Partial Sprinkler Equipments.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association. Vol. 6, No. 3, Jan 1913, p. 268.)

NFPA, 1939: “Lakeview School, Collinwood, Ohio, March 4, 1908. 175 Killed.

“The Lakeview School, Collinwood, a suburb of Cleveland, was destroyed by fire between the hours of ten and eleven o’clock on the morning of March 4, 1908, while school was in session, resulting in a loss of life of two teachers and 173 children.

“Smoke was first seen coming through the crevices in the stairway at the front of the building. Flames spread with great rapidity up the stairway to the upper floors. At the discovery of the fire the janitor sounded the school fire alarm gong, and the teachers immediately gave fire drill signals. Reports indi¬cate that the ‘children in the rooms on the first floor were safely ushered out of the building. In some manner, however, the children on the upper floors became panic- stricken, and made a mad rush for the rear stairway, which with the front stairway exit branched from the main corridor in the center of the building,. At the bottom of the rear stairway on first floor was a frame partition, which created a vestibule between the partition and outer doors of the building.

In the mad rush the children became jammed in. a heap, against the inside of this partition and were found there by rescuers. So tightly were the chil¬dren wedged that the rescuers could do little to free them, and consequently they perished. at that location. Because all attention was directed toward saving the occupants, and due to the total inadequacy of the fire department, the building was totally destroyed.

“At the time, the Collinwood schoolhouse was considered a modern build¬ing, of average school construction. The lighting and heating devices apparently were well installed. The building was provided with two separate exits and an outside fire escape. The children were familiar with the fire drill. All in all, there was nothing unusual in connection with the school to indicate that such a horrible catastrophe could happen. There remain hundreds of schools by no means as well constructed or secure against such a loss as was the Collinwood School.

“The direct cause of the fire is not positively known, although the con¬clusion reached by a thorough joint investigation and inquiry made by the Deputy State Fire Marshal, local coroner, chief of Cleveland Fire Department, and members of the Collinwood Board of Education is that the fire originated from a steam main which rested on wooden joists.

“Investigation also revealed that under the front stairway was a storage closet. The fact that smoke and fire were seen coming from the stairs directly over this closet, and that the closet was used for miscellaneous storage, leads to the theory that the fire may- have originated there.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Major School Disasters.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 33, No. 2, Oct 1939, pp. 163-164.)

Ohio History Central: “The Collinwood School Fire inspired local, state, and national governments to pass new building codes to prevent future disasters of this magnitude. The community of Collinwood raised funds to rebuild the school, making the new building a model for safety standards in that era.” (Ohio History Central, “Collinwood School Fire”)

Smith: “At nine thirty in the morning of March 4, 1908, stu¬dents and teachers were settled down to their day’s work when the fire bell sounded. Accustomed to fire drills, the students lined up and followed their teachers’ instruc¬tions to move out into the narrow halls.

“There to their surprise they were greeted with heavy black smoke and with the terrible realization that this was not a drill but the real thing. A fire that had started in the basement had made rapid progress through the brick structure, and within moments it had cut off exit through the front door with a wall of flame. On seeing this the students panicked. In their race for the rear door they trampled one another. Those who finally fought their way to the door found it locked, and their schoolmates charging up behind them crushed them against the sealed exit.

“Teachers tried to regain order, but it was a losing battle. One who was directing her class down the second- floor hall saw that the flames racing up the stairs toward them made passage down impossible. Quickly she redi¬rected her charges up to the third floor where she handed them out onto the fire escape and safety.

“But other students were not so lucky. As horrified parents rushed toward the blazing school-building, they saw their children at the windows, trapped and pleading to be saved. Women rushed for ladders. Men sought to break in the doors held fast by the bodies of the children piled up against them. Parent after parent had to watch as his or her child seemed close to safety and then fell back into the flames.

“After too long a delay the volunteer fire department of Collinwood arrived. As they drew up a sickening crash was heard—the interior of the school had just collapsed, sending children on the upper floors tumbling into the inferno that was the basement and first floor.

“The fire burned on for three hours, but it had already taken its terrible toll. Only eighty children had escaped injury. About seventy had burns and other injuries from which they would eventually recover. That left the stag¬gering total of 175 six- to fourteen-year-olds dead in the ruins of Lake View.” (Smith, Denis. Dennis Smith’s History of Firefighting in America… 1978, p. 118-120.)
Newspapers:

March 5, NYT: “Cleveland, Ohio, March 4 — In a fire that may have been incendiary between 160 and 170 children lost their lives this morning when Lake View School, in the suburb of Collinwood, burned. Penned in narrow hallways and jammed up against doors that only opened inward, the pupils were killed by fire and smoke and crushed under the grinding heels of their panic-stricken playmates. All of the victims were between the ages of 6 and 14 years. There were about 310 children in the school.

“Two teachers, in vain efforts to save the little ones perished. To-night 165 bodies are in the morgue at Collinwood, of which more than 100 have been identified and 57 are still unidentified. Thirteen children are still unaccounted for, and all the hospitals and houses for two miles around contained children, some mortally and many less seriously injured….

“What caused the fire is a mystery. There are hints that it was incendiary. There were no wires to cross and ignite the woodwork. There was no rubbish where the flames began, to ignite from spontaneous combustion. All that now seems to be known is that three little girls coming from the basement saw smoke. Before the janitor sounded the fire alarm a mass of flames was sweeping up the stairway from the basement. Before the children from the upper floors could reach the ground egress was cut off and they perished. It was all over almost before the frantic mothers who gathered realized that their children were lost.

“With the call for fire engines calls for ambulances were sent in. Every ambulance from the eastern end of Cleveland was pressed into service. Wagons were used to carry off the dead. Rescuers were present by the hundreds, but they could not save the life of one child, so dense was the jam at the foot of the stairways.

“The Lake View School was a three-story structure. Under the stairway in the front of the building was the furnace. Owing to the mild weather there was less fire than usual, and it is certain that the fire did not start there. On the first floor four rooms were in use when the fire started, and the children of this floor escaped with few exceptions. They believed the ringing of the fire gong was the usual fire drill signal and marched out in order. The pupils on the second and third floors became panic-stricken and rushed to death.

“…The number of pupils was more than normally large, and the smaller children had been placed in the upper part of the building. There was only one fire escape, and that was in the rear of the building. There were two stairways, one leading to a door in front and the other to a door in the rear. Both of these doors opened inward, and it is said that the rear door was locked as well.

“When the flames were discovered the teachers, who throughout seem to have acted with courage and self-possession, and to have struggled heroically for the safety of their pupils, marshaled the little ones into columns for the “fire drill,” which they had often practiced. Unfortunately the line of march in this exercise had always led to the front door, and the children had not been trained to seek any other exit. The fire to-day came from directly under this part of the building. When the children reached the foot of the stairs they found the flames close upon them, and so swift a rush was made for the door that in an instant a tightly packed mass of children was piled up against it. From that second none of those who were upon any portion of the first flight of stairs had a chance for their lives. The children at the foot of the stairs attempted to fight their way back to the floor above, while those who were coming down shoved them mercilessly back into the flames below.

“In an instant there was a frightful panic, with 200 of the pupils fighting for their lives. Most of those who were killed died here. The greater part of those who escaped managed to turn back and reach the fire escape and the windows in the rear. What happened at the foot of that first flight of stairs will never be known, for all of those who were caught in the full fury of the panic were killed. After the flames had died away, however, a huge heap of little bodies, burned by the fire and trampled into things of horror, told the tale.

“As soon as the alarm was given Mrs. Kelley ran from her home, which is not far from the schoolhouse, to the burning building. The front portion of the structure was a mass of flames, and, frenzied by the screams of the fighting and dying children which reached her from the death trap at the foot of the first flight of stairs and behind that closed door, Mrs. Kelley ran to the rear, hoping to effect an entrance there and save her children. She was joined by a man whose name is not known, and the two of them tugged and pulled frantically at the door. They were unable to move it in the slightest, and there was nothing at hand by which they could hope to break it down. In utter despair of saving any of the children, they turned their attention to the windows, and by smashing some of these they managed to save a few of the pupils. They could have saved many more,” said Mr. Kelley to-night, “if the door had not been locked. Nobody knows how many of the children might have made their way out before my wife reached there if the door had not been locked. If half a dozen men had been there when my wife and her companion arrived at the schoolhouse, perhaps they might have broken down the door, but the two could do nothing, and the flames spread so rapidly that it was all over in a few minutes.”

“Parents Fight with Firemen. The suburb of Collingwood contains about 8,000 people, and within a half hour after the outbreak of the fire nearly every one of them was gathered around the blazing ruins of the school house, hundreds of parents fighting frantically with the police and firemen who were busily engaged in saving the lives of the children caught in the burning building and doing their best to extinguish the fire. The police were utterly unable through lack of numbers to keep away the crowd that pressed upon them, and the situation soon became so serious that a number of the more cool-headed men in the throng took it upon themselves to aid in fighting back the crowd, while others worked to help the firemen and the police.

“Among the latter were Wallace Upton, who reached the building shortly after the front door had caved in, and disclosed to the horror-stricken crowd the awful scenes that had occurred there. Just in front of Upton’s eyes was his own ten-year-old daughter, helpless in the crush, badly burned, and trampled upon, but still alive. The fire was close upon her, and if she could not be saved at once she could not be saved at all. Upton sprang to help her, and with all his strength sought to tear her from the weight that was pressing her down and from the flames which were creeping close. Although he worked with a desperation of despair, his strength was unequal to the task. He fought until his clothing was partly burned from him and the skin of his face and hands was scorched black. Other men attempted to induce him to move, but he refused until he saw that his girl was dead, and that he could not save her life by sacrificing his own. He then withdrew from the schoolhouse, and, although so seriously injured that he may die, lingered about the place for several hours, refusing to go to a hospital or to seek medical attention….

“County Coroner Burke immediately after the fire said: “The construction of the school house was an outrage. The hallways were narrow and there was practically only one mode of exit. The children were caught like rats in a trap.”….

“Glenn Sanderson, a boy 12 years of age, met his death in plain view of a large crowd which was utterly unable to help him. He was on the third floor in the school auditorium in which were a number of pieces of scenery, the floor beneath him was on fire, and young Sanderson swung from one piece of scenery to another trying to reach the fire escape. He managed to cross the stage about half way when he missed his grasp and fell into the fire….” (New York Times. “165 Children Perish in Fire,” March 5, 1908.)

March 11, NYT: “Cleveland, Ohio, March 10 — “The loss of the lives of the little children in the Collinwood school fire was absolutely inexcusable,” Coroner Burke declared to-day, after making a thorough investigation into the causes of the fire. “The poor little children were caught in a veritable trap and held and crushed until burned to death.” he said. “Someone is responsible for this, and should be held.” “I find that the steam pipes caused the fire by being placed too close to the wood of the joists. There is no doubt in my mind that the overheated pipes caused the fire.” “But the children should have escaped, and would have done so, had it not been for the partition built in the hall at the foot of the stairway. This is what caused their death.” The Coroner said that the building was also deficient in automatic devices for opening of doors.” (New York Times. “Finds Cause of School Fire. Collinwood Coroner Says…Steam Pipes.” March 11, 1908.)

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