FIRE IN A SCHOOL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3128, 12 April 1883, Page 3

FIRE IN A SCHOOL.

A terrible disaster has occurred at the German Catholic Church at New York. There were about 500 girls and 200 boys in the school when an alarm of fire was given. The building was five storeys high, the upper floors being approached by narrow stairs. When the alarm was given the scholars began to leave the building in an orderly manner, under the care of their teachers, who had previously drilled them with the object of averting a panic in case of fire. Disorder was first produced by the inrush of parents and other friends with the object of rescuing the children. At the angle of the stairs a child fell, and others falling upon it, a blooade was at once produced. A panic then set in, and a fierce struggle for life ensued which baffled all efforts to restrain it. The confusion was climaxed by the breaking of the balustrade. Many children fell into the space beneath, which was soon half-filled with writhing bodies. Fifteen young girls who were at the bottom of this terrible heap were suffocated, while many others sustained fractured limbs and internal injuries. The school was situated among a dense population. After the panic was over the scene witnessed outside the building was of the most distressing character. The parents of the dead and injured children were nearly frantic; and even the police as w.ell as the ordinary spectators were moved by the grief displayed on the recognition of the little corpses as they were brought out of the building.