The Deadliest School Disaster on this Day in History

 

This day in history: The Collinwood school fire (also known as the Lake View School fire) was a major disaster that occurred on this day in 1908 at the Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio, when a fire erupted, killing 172 students, two teachers and one rescuer. It is one of the deadliest school disasters in United States history.

"About nine o'clock in the morning on March 4, 1908, nine-year-old Niles Thompson jumped out of a window at Lakeview Elementary to escape a fire that had started in the basement of his school. Nearly two hundred children who had also been lucky enough to escape watched as flames engulfed the Collinwood school. Niles frantically ran among his schoolmates, searching for his little brother, Thomas. Once Niles realized his brother was not one of the safe children, he ran back into the school to save Thomas. Neither of the two Thompson boys walked out of their school again." Source

The origin of the fire remains uncertain, although numerous explanations abound. Newspapers circulated many possibilities, sometimes blaming the building's janitor Fritz Hirter for inattentiveness and for running the boiler too hot. Another theory held that the fire was caused by girls smoking in a basement closet near flammable materials. A quickly completed coroner's inquest 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 speed 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 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 asserts that the fire was of "unknown origin."

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The 1970 Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Dance Hall Fire on This Day in History

A memorial to the victims.

This day in history: On this day in 1970, a fire killed 146 people at a dance hall outside of Saint-Laurent-du-Pont in France. Firefighters discovered upon arrival that the management of Club Cinq Sept had kept the emergency exits padlocked in order to keep people from entering the building without paying. At 1:45 in the morning, when the fire broke out, there were about 150 dancers still in the building who had paid to hear a performance by the rock group "The Storm". The dance hall was decorated with "paper and plastic psychedelic decorations" which caused the fire to spread rapidly, and firefighters in Saint-Laurent were only notified after two young men ran nearly a mile to the town to sound the alert. Witnesses told investigators that the fire had started after a patron had lit a cigarette and then tossed the burning match aside rather than extinguishing it.

In June 1971, one of the managers, Gilbert Bas, was charged with, and found guilty of, manslaughter in relation to the deaths. He received a two-year suspended sentence. Two other managers died in the fire. The mayor and three building contractors were found guilty of causing injury through negligence, and received short suspended sentences.

Wikipedia has an entry with a list of all the nightclub fires.

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The Great Fire of London on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The Great Fire of London began on this day in 1666 in Pudding Lane and 80% of London was destroyed.

In 1667 strict new fire regulations were imposed in London to reduce the risk of future fire and allow any fire that did occur to be more easily extinguished. The fire resulted in the emergence of the first insurance companies, starting with Nicholas Barbon's Fire Office. These companies hired private firemen and offered incentives for clients who took measures to prevent fires—for example, a cheaper rate for brick versus wooden buildings. Confusion between parish and private firefighting efforts led the insurance companies in 1832 to form a combined firefighting unit which would eventually become the London Fire Brigade. The fire led to a focus in building codes on restricting the spread of fire between units.

The Great Plague epidemic of 1665 is believed to have killed a sixth of London's inhabitants, or 80,000 people, and it is sometimes suggested that the fire saved lives in the long run by burning down so much unsanitary housing with their rats and their fleas which transmitted the plague, as plague epidemics did not recur in London after the fire. During the Bombay plague epidemic two centuries later, this belief led to the burning of tenements as an antiplague measure. The suggestion that the fire prevented further outbreaks is disputed; the Museum of London identifies this as a common myth about the fire.

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Charles the Bad's Horrific Death on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Charles the Bad (Charles II of Navarre) died on this day in 1387. "The ultimate opportunist, Charles earned the nickname 'The Bad' for his dealings during the Hundred Years' War. He also goes down as a great example of karmic justice. Charles gained a reputation for playing the English and French against each other during the Hundred Years' War. Several times he escaped imprisonment and execution. He was one of the most cunning rulers of his time." Source

His horrific death became famous all over Europe, and was often cited by moralists, and sometimes illustrated in illuminated manuscript chronicles. There are several versions of the story, varying in the details. This is Francis Blagdon's English account, of 1803:

Charles the Bad, having fallen into such a state of decay that he could not make use of his limbs, consulted his physician, who ordered him to be wrapped up from head to foot, in a linen cloth impregnated with brandy, so that he might be inclosed [sic] in it to the very neck as in a sack. It was night when this remedy was administered. One of the female attendants of the palace, charged to sew up the cloth that contained the patient, having come to the neck, the fixed point where she was to finish her seam, made a knot according to custom; but as there was still remaining an end of thread, instead of cutting it as usual with scissors, she had recourse to the candle, which immediately set fire to the whole cloth. Being terrified, she ran away, and abandoned the king, who was thus burnt alive in his own palace.

John Cassell's moralistic version states:

He was now sixty years of age, and a mass of disease, from the viciousness of his habits. To maintain his warmth his physician ordered him to be swathed in linen steeped in spirits of wine, and his bed to be warmed by a pan of hot coals. He had enjoyed the benefit of this singular prescription some time in safety, but now, as he was perpetrating his barbarities on the representatives of his kingdom, "by the pleasure of God, or of the devil," says Froissart, "the fire caught to his sheets, and from that to his person, swathed as it was in matter highly inflammable." He was fearfully burnt, but lingered nearly a fortnight, in the most terrible agonies.

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The Deadliest Hotel Fire on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The deadliest hotel fire in United States history happened on this day (December 7) in 1946. The Winecoff Hotel fire killed 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel's original owners. Located at 176 Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, the Winecoff Hotel was advertised as "absolutely fireproof". While the hotel's steel structure was indeed protected against the effects of fire, the hotel's interior finishes were combustible, and the building's exit arrangements consisted of a single stairway serving all fifteen floors. All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen.

The fire was notable for the number of victims who jumped to their deaths. A photograph of one survivor's fall won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. 1946 was notable for the number of deadly hotel fires. On June 5, 1946 the La Salle Hotel caught fire in Chicago (with 61 fatalities), and on June 19, 1946 the Canfield Hotel caught fire in Dubuque, Iowa (with 19 fatalities) These three fires spurred significant changes in North American building codes, most significantly requiring multiple protected means of egress and self-closing fire-resistive doors for guest rooms in hotels. 

The deadliest hotel fire happened in 1971. On Christmas Day 1971, the Daeyeonggak Hotel in Seoul, South Korea, suffered a gas explosion. The resulting fire killed 164 people and injured 63 people. 

"Fire departments across the city scrambled to the scene – but their ladders could barely reach the eighth floor. Tragically, 38 people jumped to their deaths, some clutching mattresses in an attempt to dampen their fall. Helicopters were dispatched to rescue those in floors nine to 22 – and one man fell out of a helicopter during a rescue attempt." Source

The worst building fire ever in the US was of course the 9/11 World Trade Center horror. However, before that worst building fire was the Ohio Penitentiary on April 20, 1930, where a candle ignited some oily rags and killed 322 inmates. 

However, the worst building fire in the world before 9/11 happened on December 8 in 1863. The Jesuit church, Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, in Santiago Chile, burned up thanks to gas and oil lamps and killed over 2500 people.

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