TERRIBLE PANIC AT FIRE.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2694, 12 July 1923, Page 7

TERRIBLE PANIC AT FIRE.

SEVENTY-FOUR KILLED. MANY TRAMPLED TO DEATH. AWFUL END TO A CONCERT. Further details have come to hand of the appalling disaster caused by the lire which broke out in an old wooden country schoolhouso. at Cleveland, South Carolina, while the school children were giving an entertainment in the presence of their parents. There was a panic-stricken struggle to reac'>. the only exit. Many persons were trampled to death and others worn burned alive. In all, 41 childrern. IS men. and 1 ."> women lost their lives, and more than 100 were injured. Whole families were wiped out. The entertainment was given on the eve of the school holidays, and COO parents and friends attended. Priv." essays had been road, pooni3 recited, and school songs suivr. and prizes were about to be awarded, when an old-fashioned oil lamp suspended from the centre of tho room fell, owing to the loosening of a hook, on the heads of the people beneath, and exploded, scattering blazing oil in a>l directions. The clothing of Sfveral persons became ignited, and they scheamed hysterically, causing an immediate panic. Nobody made an effort to put out the fire, which was at first confined to a small space on the floor, and could easily have been overcome. Women raised the cry of "Eire!" and crushed madly for theirchildren. who stood huddled on the platform, crying. Teachers vainly tried for the first moment to preserve order. Men, mostly farmers, who had driven to the schoolhouso, dashed for the only exit, about eight feet wida, leadine: down one flight of narrow steps to the outside doorway. People struggled at the exit and on tho stairs like wild animals. They became jammed together, and forgot everything except the single desire to escape the flames, whk-h by now had made serious headway, and were burning at their backs, creeping toward them. Fooplo fell to tho floor and were trampled on. They vainly appealed for assistance as the crowd in the doorway and on the stairs swayed back and forth trying to move forward. Some women, losing their ballandco on stairs, were pushed down and piled in heaps as others crawled over them. The cries and groans of the dying mingled with the heartrending appeals of mothers who could not find tlielr children in the melee. ROARING FURNACE. The schoolroom became a roaring furnace, and people who were unable to push their way through the exit jumped from the windows to the -round about 20ft below. Many broke arms and legs. The amateur firemen in the town wore unable to cope with the flames because their rapid spread had entirely enveloped the wooden building within 15 minutes, and those who were still captive inside, held there by their injuries, were burned to death. Entire families were wiped out. Mrs. Phillips and her three children, Mr. Charles Hending and four children, and Mrs. Croft and> three children were killed. Sergeant TUton. of tho police force of th 0 neighbouring town of Camden, took chai ge of what small rescue worh was possible. The whole countrywide turned out on seeing flames in the sky and rushed to the school in their cars. They wore unable to dc anything except throw buckets of wa. tor ineffectively on the flames. Houses in tho vicinity were turned into hospitals, and first aid was rendered by farmers' wives. There were too few doctors available to give quids assistance to all needing it. Children received attention first, anr" there were pitiful scenes ns little girls and boys who had been dropped from windows by hysterical parents were removed to neighbours' houses, suffering great pain. A HEARTRENDING SIGHT. Sergeant Tilton. in an interview said- "It was the most heartrending s'lcrht I ever saw. When I arrivec there the s-ohoolhouse was a. mass o: flames, and people were screaming and groaning. " Many of those who had got ou were srniggling to get back again t< rescue their lost children, thus addinf to the confusion and retarding tin exit of those penned in. "We tried our best to help thosi who were imprisoned amid the flame, but if was of no use. I saw parent badly injured and in terrible pain forget all about their own suffering, and rush about appealing for help fo their children. "It was impossible to obtain fact for a. long time, so excited and griel stricken were the survivors. It i probable that the lamp hook becann loose owing to the swaying of tlv building when the audience stampei on the floor in approval of th G Chil dren's displays. .MANY TRAMPLED UPON. " It is apparent from the bruises o; some of the bodies that people wer knocked down and trampled on by th maddened crowd inside the buildin before the fire reached them. We lai the charred bodies on the ground, sid by side. Hundreds came round to u to identify them. Many of the bo ies were so terribly mutilated tha identification was impossible, especial ly in the case of small children. "It was pitiful to see half-craz country-folk, driven ©tit of their mind by grief, searching among the black eiied bodies for a ring Or some othc token of identification. t You woul see a woman hunting; then she woul scream and faint. " Everybody knew everybody else : tho entertainment, having been ncigr, hours for many years. It was th most, ambitious affair of its kind ev< given in this vicinity. The peopl* mostly farmers and sma!l landownei are very proud; of (their" children schoolwork, and our anirjal school er tertainment is one of the most in portant events in the life of our core munity."