Long Description: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.
A common misconception about the building's design is that the
doors opened inward. They did not, as has been verified in accounts
of the fire written at the time. Doors to the building were
equipped with common door knob latches, not the more modern crash
bar type latch. As 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.
Lake View School, Collinwood, Ohio the morning following the fire
of March 4, 1908. 175 people lost their lives in the fire, making
it the greatest loss of life in a fire of this type in a school in
the United States to that date.
[edit] 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