COLLINWOOD SCHOOL FIRE

The 'Collinwood School Fire' (also known as the 'Lake View School Fire') of Ash Wednesday, March 4, 1908 was one of the deadliest disasters of its type in the United States during its era. 172 students, two teachers and a rescuer were killed in the disaster in Collinwood, Ohio, a community that has since been absorbed into the city of Cleveland.
While the Lake View School was built with load bearing masonry outer walls, much of the four story building’s floor structure system used wooden joists. It was one wooden joist that caught fire when it was overheated by a steam pipe. The building’s main stair case extended from the front doors of the building, up to the third floor; without benefit of fire doors, the stairwell acted like a chimney, helping to spread the fire quickly. Oiled wooden hall and classroom floors also fueled the fire.

Contents

Door controversy

Aftermath

See also

External links

Door controversy

Initially, it was believed that those killed were trapped by the building's vestibule doors, which opened inward, not outward. Doors to the building were equipped with common door knob latches, not the more modern crash bar type latch. While panic leading to the crush of a large number of students in stairwell vestibules contributed to the death toll, students also died as a result of smoke inhalation and the fire itself. Some children died jumping from second and third story windows. Community members watched as victims trapped in the building were burned beyond recognition.

Aftermath

Those killed in the fire who could not be identified, or students whose parents could not afford a burial were buried in a mass grave in Cleveland's Lakeview Cemetery. Additionally, several families who lost their children in the fire chose to bury their children’s remains adjacent to the Collinwood victims.
Following the fire, the remains of the Lake View School were demolished and a memorial garden planned for the site. A new school, 'Collinwood Memorial Elementary School' (razed in 2004) was built adjacent to the disaster site, and incorporated many features that had been lacking in the previous building. Unlike the building involved in the disaster, the new school incorporated fire safe stairwells, a central alarm system, and was built of steel framing and other fire safe materials. Although the new school was torn down in 2004, a memorial plaque remains on the site as new development is added to the area.
The disaster also led to a national effort to change doors at public buildings so that they opened outward, and made "panic bar" latches on doors required in all schools. The final casualty of the fire was the independence of the Collinwood community itself. Unable to sufficiently guarantee fire safety resources for its residents, voters approved an annexation of Collinwood into Cleveland within two years of the fire.

See also

★ Iroquois Theater Fire--a 1903 fire in Chicago, Illinois that killed 602

★ Rhythm Night Club Fire--a 1940 fire in Natchez, Mississippi killing 209

★ Beverly Hills Supper Club fire--a 1977 fire in Kentucky that claimed 165 lives

★ The Station nightclub fire--a 2003 fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island that killed 100

★ 2006 Kolkata leather factory fire--a 2006 fire in West Bengal, India that killed at least 10

★ Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire--a 1911 fire in New York, New York that killed 146

★ Stardust disaster--a 1981 fire in Dublin, Ireland that killed 46

★ Hamlet chicken processing plant fire--a 1991 fire in Hamlet, North Carolina killing 25

★ Summerland disaster--a 1973 fire on the Isle of Man that killed 51

★ Happy Land Fire--a 1990 fire in New York, New York that killed 87

★ Cocoanut Grove fire--a 1942 fire in Boston killing 491

★ Our Lady of the Angels School Fire--a 1958 fire in Chicago, Illinois that killed 95

★ 2006 Moscow hospital fire--a fire in a Moscow hospital killing 46

External links

★ Dead Ohio Collinwood School Fire

★ Collinwood Fire Memorial Sculpture, Lakeview Cemetery

★ Sun Newspaper’s 90th anniversary coverage

★ New Memorial School built on the premises of Lakeview/ Old Memorial School.