FIRE IN A SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2606, 30 October 1915, Page 6

FIRE IN A SCHOOL

DREADFUL SCENES A DEATH-ROLL OP TWENTY Br 'loleeropli—Freas Assoclation-Oopyriffht Vancouver, October 28. 'At Peabody, in Massachusetts, fifty children were burned to death in a ocliool which caught on fire. Twelve bodies have been recovered.

Tho fire broke out in. St. John's Parocliial Scliool tbrougli an accident in. the boiler room a fow minutes after tho school had assembled. Thero was a panic, six hundred children being affected, who dashed to the exits. The hall stairway loading to_ tho upper floor was choked with shrieking children. Neighbours hold blankets outside tho windows. Many children, though injured, were saved by this means, but fifty aro missing, and it is believed they are dead. Tho fire consumed the brick structure in so short a time that the fire brigade was unable to affect many rescues.

The teachers marshalled tho children for fire drill after the alarm was given, but one hysterical child screamed, which affected tlio others, andtliey all rushed, panic-stricken, downstairs. Hysterical men and women surrounded the school, attacking the police in vain efforts to reach their children, whose shrieks could be heard amid the flames. Many were Irish children, but tho majority wero of foreign parentage. The total death-roll.is twenty.

Most of the. bodies have been recovered.