The Collinwood school fire (also known as the Lake View School fire) was a major disaster that occurred at the Lake View School in

Collinwood Collinwood is a historical area in the northeast part of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally a village in Euclid Township, it was annexed by the city in 1910. Collinwood grew around the rail yards of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (now C ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, when a fire erupted on March 4, 1908, killing 172 students, two teachers and one rescuer. It is one of the deadliest school disasters in United States history.

Fire

The Lake View School was a fire trap; similarly designed buildings could be found throughout the nation. During the fire, the school's masonry exterior acted as a chimney, sucking flame upward as the wooden interior burned; open stairways and the absence of fire breaks enhanced the

chimney effect The stack effect or chimney effect is the movement of air into and out of buildings through unsealed openings, chimneys, flue-gas stacks, or other containers, resulting from air buoyancy. Buoyancy occurs due to a difference in indoor-to-outdoor ...

. Lake View had only two exits, and fire quickly blocked the front door. Children rushed to the rear door, but in a vestibule narrowed by partitions, they stumbled and climbed on top of one another, forming a pile that completely blocked the exit. Though later accounts sometimes described children pinned against inward-swinging doors, Lake View's doors opened outward. The vestibule, however, created an impassable bottleneck for the crowd trying to rush through it. Collinwood's small volunteer fire department and horse-drawn engines arrived too late and were ill-equipped to battle the inferno. In less than an hour, the three floors and the roof of the Lake View School collapsed into the basement, leaving only a hollowed-out brick ruin. Almost half of the children and two teachers in the building died.

Cause of the fire

The origin of the fire remains uncertain, though explanations proliferated. Newspapers circulated many possibilities, sometimes blaming the building's janitor, Fritz Hirter, for inattentiveness and running the boiler too hot. Other times, girls smoking in a basement closet near flammable materials came under scrutiny. A quickly completed

coroner's inquest A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jur ...

concluded that heating pipes running next to exposed wooden joists ignited the building. The coroner blamed the fire on "conditions" and held no one legally accountable for it. Many parents condemned the quickness of the inquest and objected to its refusal to hold the school board, the architects, Hirter, or anyone else responsible. J.H. Morgan, Ohio's Chief Inspector of Public Buildings, explained the problem this way in his annual report to the Governor and citizens: "The cause of the fire cannot be determined. Many believe it originated from the heating system or boilers, but proof has been offered to the contrary." A memorial plaque placed at the site by the state of Ohio in 2003 agrees that the fire was of "unknown origin."

Aftermath

The fire-safe building erected after the deadly fire, 1911 The town of Collinwood paid for the burial of nineteen unidentifiable bodies in a shared grave at Cleveland's

Lake View Cemetery Lake View Cemetery is a privately owned, nonprofit garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland in the U.S. state of Ohio. Founded in 1869, the cemetery was favored by wealthy families during the Gil ...

. After crews tore down the ruins of the school, disputes about the use of the land quickly arose. In the interests of efficiency and economy, the school board had initially planned to build a new school on the site of the tragedy, but mourning parents objected, and some also filed lawsuits seeking to prevent this. After more than a year of dispute, the state paid for the land where the Lake View School had stood, and the town turned it into a memorial garden.On the state buying land and proposals for a park, see, for example, "Favor Memorial Park." ''Cleveland Plain Dealer''. Mar 13, 1910; on legal challenges to rebuild the school on the same spot, see "Collinwood Grief Flares to Anger." ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'', Mar 5, 1909. The new Collinwood Memorial School, built to the highest standards of fire resistance at the time, was constructed on an adjacent lot.

References

External links

*
The Collinwood Fire, 1908

Encyclopedia of Cleveland entry: Collinwood School Fire

Collinwood Fire Memorial Sculpture, Lakeview Cemetery
* Jablonski, Ray.

" '' Sun News''. October 8, 1998. ''Sun Newspapers 90th anniversary coverage * Dissell, Rachel.
Collinwood school fire: 100 years later, an angel still kneels over the children
" ''

Cleveland Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

''. March 2, 2008. Updated October 17, 2011. ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'''s 100th anniversary coverage
New Memorial School built on the premises of Lakeview/ Old Memorial School.
*

In Loving Remembrance
– A 24-page commemorative booklet produced in conjunction with an exhibit at

Cleveland Public Library Cleveland Public Library, located in Cleveland, Ohio, operates the Main Library on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 27 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and the Ohio Library for the ...

on the disaster.
Collinwood School Fire: March 4, 1908
filmed by William Hubern Bullock {{DEFAULTSORT:Collinwood School Fire 1900s in Cleveland School fire disasters Building fires in the United States 1908 in Ohio Fire disasters involving barricaded escape routes Fires in Ohio 1908 fires in the United States Collinwood March 1908 events Human stampedes in the United States Building collapses in the United States Building collapses caused by fire

Fire

Cause of the fire

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading

External links