The Centennial Anniversary of the Worst School Fire in US History
One hundred years ago today, 175 people perished in the single deadliest school fire in American history in the then-Cleveland suburb of Collinwood. The fire, which occurred at Lake View School, killed 172 students, 2 teachers, and one rescuer. A steam pipe that overheated a lone wooden joist is what is believed to have caused the fire, and a sudden draft quickly swept the fire along the walls.
When the flames began to grow under stairs in the school's basement, there were approximately 320 students in the building. According to accounts from the original March 5, 1908 story that ran in the Cleveland Leader, three girls ran up the stairs and alerted the school's janitor that a fire had started.
The stampede that ensued was perhaps one of the greatest detriments to the safe evacuation of students. Accounts from that day indicate that there was a 10-foot-high press of students leading to the rear door of the building. The scene was described as horrific, and those who were unfortunate enough to have seen it, according to the Cleveland Leader, "are insane" while "others will never forget". In their haste to exit the building, students were trampled and trapped.
Students on the third floor of the building, with few exceptions, were able to exit the building safely through a fire escape. Those on the first floor were led out the doors the quickest. But it was the effort of the students on the buildings second floor to make their way down the rear stairs, turn a corner, and get out of the building that made this one of the most heart-wrenching disasters in American history.
Children came "tumbling down the stairs. The stairs were broad, the corridor broad, but the entrance to the vestibule of the rear door - narrow." Children ran faster and faster, some tripping on their way down, and the mass of students growing immovable, trapped, and stuck. The fire first touched those students trapped at the bottom of the pile in the stairway, which was described as being like the "chute in a grain elevator". The bottom layers of children were said to be screaming, while the top remained quiet. Some students, instead of being burned to death, slipped away into unconsciousness, likely due to the smoke and fumes, before meeting their ends.
Rescuers tried to rescue the children, and many of the teachers were helpful in getting the other remaining students out of the building. Parents had also shown up at the school in the midst of the fire to retrieve their children. While some where lucky enough to have found their children safe, others were not so lucky. It was these other parents who watched in horror as the flames slowly crept up and blackened the faces of the children trapped near the rear exit.
In the aftermath of the fire, the local morgues were flooded with bodies of children. Some were unable to be identified. Those killed in the fire that could not be identified, or whose parents could not afford a burial, were buried in a mass grave in Cleveland's Lakeview Cemetery. Some families that lost children in the fire also chose to bury their children's remains adjacent to the Collinwood victims.
The remains of the Lake View School were demolished, and in its place a memorial garden was planned for the site. A new school, Collinwood Memorial Elementary School, was built adjacent to the site of the disaster, and incorporated many features that were lacking in the original building's plans.
Included in the new school were fire safe stairwells and a central alarm system. The building was also made of steel framing and other fire safe materials.
The new school was torn down in 2004, but a plaque remains on the site even as new development is added to the area.
The Collinwood fire also led to a nationwide effort to change doors at public buildings, so that they could open outwards. It also led to the mandate of having "panic bar" latches on doors in schools.
The deaths at the school also led to the death of Collinwood as an independent community. Within two years of the fire, voters approved the annexation of Collinwood into Cleveland as the community was unable to sufficiently guarantee fire safety resources for its residents.
Below you will find some extremely rare video footage of the Lake View School fire, as well as some original scans of the 1908 Cleveland Leader coverage of the fire and its aftermath.
New York Times, March 6, 1908 coverage:
*Note this is a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
Cleveland Leader, March 5, 1908 coverage:
*Click to view larger images.
**Be advised, these are extremely large files and may take some time to download properly. It was necessary to keep them large in size in order to read the text.
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