SAD CALAMITY AT FREEST. (GATE PAUPER SCHOOL.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 450, 1 March 1890, Page 3

SAD CALAMITY AT FREEST. (GATE PAUPER SCHOOL.

Twenty-six Children Suffocated,

j ust a 6 the New Year was being ushered in the East-end of London experienced a terrible visitation. A fire occurred at the Forest-gate District School, by which twenty-six boys lost their lives ; and although the,conflagration itself was comparatively insignificant, its fatal consequences would have been fearfully aggravated but for, the promptitude and energy displayed by tho officials immediately after its discovery. Situated nob far from the Forest-gate Station of the Great Eastern Railway, the institution was originally erected, in 1854, asan industrialschool, by the Guardians of the Whitechapel Union ; but in 1869 ibwas transferred to tho Board of Management of the Forest-gate School DistrictThe schools are capable of accommodating 650 pauper inmates, but they do not actually contain more than 580, of whom 500 are boys and girls ranging from three to fourteen years of age, the residue being infants who are not classified according to sex. The main building is a large brick structure of three storeys, containing rooms in which the different occupations of the children are carried on. The boys are trained in engineering, gardening, carpentering, and other useful employments ; while the girls learn sewing, kitchen work, ana all those useful branches which are calculated to enable them to secure a respectable position in after-life. From the entrance of the principal structure runs a spacious corridor, at the end of which is an extremely commodious dining-hall, where the inmates partake of their meals. Ashort passage at the rear of the dining-hall communicates with what may be designated an annexe, and it was here that the lamentable catastrophe happened. The annexe, which immediately overlooks the ground in which vegetable produce is cultivated for the use of the estab. lishmenb, is a building about 50 feet long and 40 feet wide, and it comprises three storeys. Stone staircases lead to tho two upper storeys of the annexe, and for some time past these storeys have been used as dormitories for eighty-four boys, for whom sleeping accommodation was not available in the main building. Each dormitory is divided in two, the cots being arranged so as to have a clear space around them. In the middle of the needle-room downstairs stands an ordinary stove. It is fitted with aniron flue, which, after running up to a height of about 10 feet, proceeds at a right angle through the wooden partition into the wardrobe-room, whence it finds its way to tho chimney. There can be no question that, without the knowledge of the officials, this flue had become defective ; that late on Tuesday sparks from the stove escaped from the flue to the woodwork partition ; that after a while the partition got alight, and slowly set the immense mass of clothing in the wardrobe-room ablaze ; that the flames and thick smoke found their way through the flooring of the dormitories, gradually bub surely suffocating some of the sleeping occupants, but fortunately arousing others to a sense of their danger —a few of the latter, sad to relate, being after all victims of the flames, though a vast proportion were either enabled to escape or were rescued from the jaivs of death.

Notwithstanding that it was holiday-time, work in the needle-room went on as usual on Tuesday, and at eight o’clock at night, eighty-four little fellows retired to rest in the dormitories above, not a few carrying with them toys —of which they were promised a grand distribution on New Year s Day —and taking their little play things into bed with them, in the hope of being cheered bv their presence the first thing in the morning. It is stated that at ten o’clock Miss Bloomfield, the wardrobe mistress, visited the rooms on the ground floor, and that every tiling being apparently safe, she locked the doors and went to bed in a room on the stone landing adjoining the lower dormitory. Her example was followed by her assistant, Miss Terry; by Mr Hare, the assistant-yardman and officer in charge of the dormitories ; byMrs Hill, assistant cook ; and by Mrs Davey, dining-hall maid, the last two sleeping together in a room abutting against the upper dormitory. Soon after midnight Miss Bloomfield was awoKe by a smell of fire, and she instantly aroused Miss Terry, who, without a moment’s delays opened all the doois communicating with the other officers, and rang the house-bell. By the noise and din thus created Mr Hare, who slept at tho opposite end of the dormitory, was brought to a sense of the peril of the situation, and everything was done to wake up the sleeping children. By this time the flames were forcing their way through the flooring of the lower dormitory, and both that apartment and the upper dormitory were filled with an all-pervading smoke. Ere long it became but too obvious that many of the children, «sDecially in the lower dormitory, had entered their last sleep. Others were aroused from their stupor, and rescued. One little fellow refused, or was too horrified to move, and he perished. Another ran to a corner, where he was hemmed in, and he, too, fell a victim to the flames. In a very few minutes twenty-six unfortunate little ones passed into eternity, two at least alter with the fire, but most of them happily meeting a painless death. Mrs Hill and Mrs Davey had a miraculous escape. The former, being awakened by the dense smoke, aroused the latter, opened her bedroom window, and screamed out ‘ Help !’ The pair ran to the stone landing, but found that escape in that direction was impossible. Frantically Mrs Hill clutched hold of a waterpipe about a y’ard off, and with marvel lous tenacity of purpose, not to say presence of mind, slid down the pipe until she reached the roof of the dining-hall, a distance of at least twelve feet, and thence getting to the ground by means of a ladder placed°against the wall by a few people, who perceived that had she lost her hold of the water-pipo in her descent to the dining-hall roof she would have been dashed to the ground and instantaneously killed. Favoured with less presence of mind, and in a state of complete frenzy, Mrs Davey at one bound jumped sideways to the roof of the dining-hall, thus preserving her life at the expense of a sprained ankle and some contusions. The corpses were wrapped in blankets and tenderly laid out in the infirmary hall —a large, well-ventilated room, with four windows, round the walls of which Scripture texts and mottoes are arranged, intertwined with a profusion of holly, mistletoe, and other decorations familiar at this season of the year. J The bodies presented a truly heartrending spectacle. The children all lay peacefully, as if in slumber. There were no signs that they had suffered at all, and though some of the little faces were scorched, this must have been done after death, because there was not tho slightest trace of agony to be observed. There were, however, two terriblo cases of burning. At the far end of No. 9 Dormitory a part of the floor gave way where the fire was the fiercest, and two of the corpses were burned in a fearful manner, being almost unrecognisable. Tho arms of,one of these-are contorted in seeming agony about the head, while thtf bo !y is purled up in a sleeping I position ■■

In the course of the day they gave particulars of the manner in which they escaped. Some, it transpired, were aroused before others;. some were rescued quits naked, while others had time to put on their clothes. One little fellow said he was woke up by his companion coughing, and lie saw several of his mates hurry out of bed, only to fall upon the floor in an insensible condition. Thomas Grant forcibly dragged his younger brother away, and both were saved. Albert Snook jumped from the window of the upper dormitory on to the slanting roof of the outside staircase, slid down, and was picked up not much hurt. Five others managed to get to the windows and were taken out by ladders, speedily recovering frem the suffocating effects of the smoke.