The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 31, 1903, Page 4

. THE SAN FRANCISCO' CALL, THURS 3 DECEMBER - 3L, . 1903. IMPRIGONED Survivors and Rescuers Describe the Catastrophe and Scenes in House of Death. Whiia of Fate That Dooms Audience Saves the Lives of Those on the Stage. A ks 30. — The| | r. Bluebeard” | | , being on the | | 10is Theater, | | FOY DESCRIBES H( JRROR. AIDS WOMEN TO ESCAPE. HUNDREDS STRUGGLE WITH s N EAITRANCE 70 THER TER MANIAGAL FURY T0 L______‘o_f_'lfilse Behi FEICH AT Crowds Rush to Fire Escapes, Only to Find That Ladders Have Not Been Placed. Foremost Are Hurled to Their Death by the Frantic Struggles nd. CHICAGO, Dec. 30.—The Iro- quois Theater had been con- structed but a short time and its equipment was not all y n place. This included, unfortun- ately, a fire escape in ti | the building.c The small | conies to which the iron was to be attached were up, but the ladder hac not yet been con- | N ‘ N ) | structed. = | When the ic was at its height a great number of women ran for the fire escapes, only to i‘:« PN ’ find, as they emerged #rom the e | doorway: upon the little iron plat- | | form, that they were thirty or | | ty feet from the grotnd, a fire be- hind and no method of escape in front. Those who reached the | | platform first endeavored to hold theig footing and to keep back the pressed on from the . The effort was useless 2 few moments the n weye jammed with crowd | I crowd that | s of w | | men who soreamec fought | 5 ! | tore at each other like s This lasted but { {and the rush-ir | | the building off and fell ment below. the platform, fracturing arms, and two were k » at this point with fractured sk having been killed instantly George H the Ogde a building direct ley from the theater, an smoke, went down to | | gause. ~Wher he strect the women | | dropping into t | |ott imntediz der in the | | as possible able, .and t sistance was to hurriedly i | | | together ! | | | as throw them and to the frighter platforms, place the end firn > i work. his could be a fearful loss of time ens men were 1 stant into and time the bridge was cor few persons remained t with Before t 1€ v hurle ley, bein the it IROQUOTS THEATER, OF CAS AND SC PRECEDING FIRE | M MBERS vantage h two dozen, it is Elliott, made believed their way acr this narrow causeway ss ‘=0 i 2 e - e ar i : nent of the theater. It started,|see such a heartrending sight,” said | gléd and charred humanity. We car-|those on the first floor were burned | aim, from the burstizg of a |the Bishoo to-night. “I have been in | ried out so many injured and dead that|only in spots, the theater | calclum light apparatus. TE: concus- | wars and on the bloody fleld of battle, | at last they grew so numerous,that we | fragments from above.” 5 On was so great that it blew out the [ but in all my experience I have never | were unable to keep count of them. the stage and auditorium. is statement of the theater man- | contragicted by many per- | were in the theater and who hen the explosion oc- lames in a narrow wall near the upper | f the drop curtain. skylight o T ment is ns who they s ssing th | { v A. C. Selle the house fireman, | was severely burned in trying MJ wer the asbestos curtain, describes e upon the stage and the cause n | Ea S8 ity 1 was standing in the wings when k the explosion and there im- ! nediately went forward a cry of ‘Fire DAVIS' STORY. |from the stage and all parts of the | z _. | theater. Looking up, I saw that the | 4 curtain was ablaze, so I rang for the curtal We got it half way®own, | when the wind, rushing in from the broken skylights, bellied it out so that | it caught and we could not budge it. fWith the hands 1 climbed to where it was suspended and together we tried to push it down. Qur efforts were futile, and seeing that no human power could move that fire curtain, and | hat the stage was a mass of flames. [ turned my attention toward warning the actors and trying to save those who |1 heara Wil stage have n safety; and of N e suffocated by the gas, | Were in trouble been taken out | ‘‘The women were frantic and the | he explos urred, if | men not much better. I stocd at the | preserved in making | Stairway leading to the dressing-rooms where the chorus people were located | and kept some from going up to get | | their street clothes. As the others came down I forced them 1o leave the build- three sustained brui: 5. The great | ing. I do not know how they ever got ¢ . t and second | out all those girls and men who came | combined will seat | crowding down the stairs, for the stage persons. The sale of seats | entrance was blocked by a mass od, but not up to the ca- | flames.” pa nd as far as I can estimate | BISHOP nies held between 750 and 800 | FALLOWS A HERO. . top balcony, where the | AMONE the hundreds of persons who s were located, was the | Tushed to the rescue when the call of it was there the | fire Was heard on the streets was Bish- | op Fallows, who happened to be near | the theater. Without fear or hesita- tion he made his way through the dark- ness, which was intensified by the vol- ume of smoke that filled the audito- rium, to the top gallery and assisted in carrying out the victims. “God forbid that I ever again shall of and most difficulty in strug- rd the exits.” ICTING ACCOUNTS. was declared to-night by the man- of the theater that the fire t caused by the grounding of an € or by any defect in the CONFL seen anything half so gruesome as the sight that met my eyes when, with the aid of a tiny lantern, 1 was finally able to pemetrate the inky darkness of that balcony. There was a pile of bleeding bodies ten feet high, with blackened faces and remnants of charred cloth- ing clinging to them. Some were alive and moaning in their agony. Others— and, oh! by far the greater number— were dead. 1 assisted in carrying many of the injured down and miristered to | them the best T could.” MAID SAVES CHILDREN. It was the presence of the children, hundreds of whom were in the audi- ence, and the efforts of their frantic mothers, impelled by their first thought to seek the safety of their young, that caused much of the pandemonium. Alexander H. Revell,"who had sent his little daughter, Margaret, with a little friend, in charge of a maid, to see the performance, five minutes after the fire started heard of it ip his store, and hastily calling a carriage drove madly to the burning building. By the great- est good fortune one of the first persons he encountered was the hysterical maid, who informed him that the two | children had been saved without injury. Revell then hastened into the theater nd participated in the rescue. ‘As I worked in the upper balconies," said he, “the sight of those poor women and their little children with clenched fists raised as though trying to beat their way to safety and stric’zen down in the very act is too horrible to at- tempt to describe. But I thought of how my own little ones had beer. saved and 1 forgot my horror and did all I could to save those who were not so fortunate. I assisted the police and firemen in carrying down more than twenty bodies.” Sheriff Barrett and a score of depu- ties from his office assisted in carrying out the injured and in keeping order among the mob of frantic relatives who thronged the streets in front of the burning building, vainly seeking in- formation that no one could give them. “1 have never before witnessed such a scene in all my life,” said Sheriff Bar- rett. “On all sides were heans of man- Such a dreadful sight I trust I will never be called upon to witness again. Crazed men fought to get within the corridors, thinking to find their loved ones among the piles of corpses that filled every available foot of space. Strong men with tear-blinded eyes stood on the sidewalk anad called Joud- ly the names of their loved ones, as though there were a chance of the dead hearing. We had all we could do to lessen their grief, but such scenes can | never be forgottén in a lifetime.” CORONER BELIEVES RESULTS OF DISASTER : WERE UNAVOIDABLE CHICAGO, Dec. 30.—Coroner Treager made as complete an inspection of the theater as possible. He said: “If the asbestos curtain had been working 1 believe the fire might have been prevented from spreading into the audience chamber. An iron railing which separated each row of seats from the adjoining tier prevented, I think, many from reaching places of safety. This circumstance, combined with the steep incline, made it difficult for so large an audience to escape without great delay. This is a modern fire- proof theater, furnisied with all the appliances and equipment that are sup- posed to prevent just such a catas- trophe as now has occurred. The plush on the seats of the first balcony was charred, but still vistble, “This does not look to me as though everybody would have got out of the theater alive when you take into ac- count the speed with which the flames had spread. My inspection showed that the seats on the main floor were burned but little. The balconies had evidently shielded to a large extent the seats in the parquet. The path of the flames was evident. The stage and ceiling of the theater were blistered and blackenede There was practically no damage to furniture on the first floor. The hooth boxes on the sec- ond tier were destroyed by fire, while evidently by burning | W. A. Merriman, Western manager of the George H. Fuller the concerm which erected the Iro- quoig Theater, when seen to-night made the following statement con- cerning the construction of the build- | ing: ““The building wad built with safety as the ma‘n consideration. All build- ing ordinances were adhered to in]| every detail. and, more than that, there were ladditional safeguards | thrown about until I do not hesitate | to state that there was no theater building in the country which was freer from danger. The exits were numerous and all the work which our company performed was abso- lutely fireproof. After making a very careful examination of the build- ing since the fire I find the structure | as erected still stands intact.” Company, K S5 OBSTINATE ASBESTOS ; CURTAIN THE CAUSE, | SAY PROPRIETORS | CHICAGO, Dec. 31.—Will J. Davis and | Harry J. Powers, proprietors of the| | Troquois Theater, made the following | statement at 1:20 o'clock this (Thurs- | day) morning: | “So far as we have been able to as- certain the cause or causes of the most | unfortunate accident of the fire in the | Troquols, it appears that one of the | scenic draperies was noticed to have | ignited from some cause. It was de-| tected before it had reached an appre- ciable flame, and the city fireman who is detailed and constantly on duty when the theater is opened noticed it simultaneously with the electrician. The fireman, who was only a few feet away, immediately pulled a tube of ‘Kilfyre,’ of which there weré many bhung about the stage, and threw the contents upon the blaze, which would have been more than enough if the| ‘Kilfyre' had been effective, and would have extinguished the flame at once, but for some cause it had no effect. “The fireman and electrician then or- dered down the asbestos curtain, and the fireman threw the contents of an- other tube of K e upon the blaze, | but with no better result. The commo- tion thus caused excited the alarm of | the audience, who immediately started for the exits, of which there are twen- MUSICIAN OF THIS CITY EMPLOYED AT THE BURNED THEATER ty-five of unusual width, all opening out’ and ready to the hand of any one| SEATTLE, Dee. 30 s E. Arri- reaching them. The draught thus| /3. formerly of nce, was caused, it is believed. had before the | flute playver in the orchestra of the new Iroquois Theater, which was bu curtain could be entirely lowered, pro- dQuced a bellying of the asbestos cur- tain, causing a pressure on the guides| against the solid brick wall, thus stop- | ping its descent. Every effort was made by those c. the stage to pull it down, but the draught was so great it Chicago to-day or two broth Francisco at the j Arriolas are musical ers was cornet soloist at Arriola’s p s and a sister Iy time. A th held in Portland two or three expositi years ago. seemed that the pressure against the| His friends here fear that he may be wall and the friction caused thereby | among the dead. was g0 strong that it could not be over-| Several years ago Arriola came here come. The aundience became panic-|from San Francisco and joined Wag stricken in their efforts to reach the| ner's First Regiment band as first flute. exits and tripped and fell over each| He held that position until al v other, blocking the way year ago, when he and his wif to “The audience was promptly ad- | Chicago. monished and importuned by persons ———————————— on the stage and in the auditorium to | STRIKING LIVERYMEN be calm and avoid any rush: that the | i : exits and facilities for emptying the| CALL A TRUCE AND theater were ample to enable them all g it LRI (o get ous without contusion. | WILL NOT INTERF “No expense or precaution was| CHICAGO, De 30.—Immediate omitted to make the theater as fire- | after the news of the Irogueis The- proof as it could be made, there be- | ater disaster reached v ing nothing combustible in the struc-|of the striking ture except the trimmings and fur- | Young, general organ nishings of the stage and auditorium. | ternational Té In the building of the theater we sac- | called an executive rificed more space to aisles and ex- | strike leaders. its than any other theater in Amer-| It was decided that, in of th T fearful loss of life at that a T e other considerations Sase ARCHITECT VOWS HE | humanity must be 5 - and immediate action | burial of the dead without WILL BUILD NO MORE WOODEN THEATERS|** &7 heracher. . -7 PITTSBURG, Dec. 30.—Benjamin H. Continued on Page 5. Marshall, the architect who designed | .. bl TR - the Iroquois Theater, left for his home | to-night, taking advantage of the first, Two Fires at Same Time. opportunity to view the sgene of the| TWO stables were bur ast night horror. Marshall was over#helmed by | In the neighborhood « an and the news of the disaster. | Ninth streets. The first fire occurred ot “T'll never allow another theater to| in the stable of the firm Patrick be built with a stick of wood in it,” he| McFadden at 36 Potrero avenue. A declared, reading bulletins which were | horse was burned to ¢ A t handed him. “The Iroquois was built| simultaneously with the along the very latest lines and was pro- | the department to the fi 3 vided with twenty-seven double exits,| ond alarm was rung in from th but wood was used and stairways wer: | box for a fire at 953" Branr employed. A fireproof byilding will not| A stable belonging to the be erected as long as wood fs used, In| press Company was damaged a theater there are so many articles of | extent of $300. inflammable material that when a blaze ——————— once gets headway It spreads in the| Baseball Player Is Killed. most alarming manner.” | KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 30.—Den Pocketbooks, wrist bags. letter and| ¢ [h“'l:‘-"' o s «:: gk 4 ool card cases, bill books, cigar cases and|Of ' V8 Ma Basehal league. w shot and killed here to-day by Frank manicure_sets. Fine things for Ne Year's.,, Sanborn. Vail & Ca. e | Ragan, The latter was arrested. { {