- 5 months ago
Disaster Transbian episode 29
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00:00before engine 13 and the other units began arriving the best theater on earth had been transformed
00:07into an oven in collecting valuables after the fire police found at least a dozen watches
00:15all of which had stopped at about the same time 3 50 pm that meant that incredibly 17 minutes
00:24had elapsed from the time the gongs first began to clang in city hall that would account for the
00:30jamming at the exits and the reason why relatively few people were seen exiting the theater eyewitness
00:37reports varied william grover manager of the high-rise unity building more than a block away
00:44calculated that perhaps as much as seven minutes had gone by from the time flames first burst through
00:50the theater skylight before any person left the iroquois my office on the 15th floor commands a
00:57view of the entire theater he said i was startled by a loud explosion and concussion that rattled windows
01:05and returning to the window i saw a sheet of flame shooting from the roof i watched that fire seven
01:14minutes and in that time not a soul came out of the front doors then the flames died down and people
01:21began to come out and scores after that it was a steady blaze until it was put out grover's field of
01:30vision was the front of the theater on randolph street and did not include the side bordering on couch
01:36place there in the narrow alley separating the iroquois from the northwestern university building
01:43another horrible scene was taking place before the eyes of petrified students though it was the
01:50christmas holiday some of them were in the building that day along with a group of painters and workmen
01:56who were repairing damage to some classrooms from an earlier fire what they witnessed was further evidence
02:04of the rushed incomplete job done by the fuller company and its subcontractors
02:10the highest fire escape was simply a metal platform with no ladder to the ground though the theater had
02:18been open for nearly six weeks no one had bothered to complete the work one of the northwestern
02:26undergraduates was george dunlap 22 of chicago who said i was passing one of the classrooms where the
02:33painters were working and i looked across the alley and saw fire coming out of the theater exits and
02:40people fighting to get out but they were so jammed in nobody was getting out i called the painters to
02:46let us put some of their planks or ladders across to the fire escapes run it out run it out one of the
02:53painters shouted he and other workmen shoved a 26 foot ladder across the alley to rest on the railing of
03:02a fire escape platform they watched in horror as a man crazed with fear started to cross the improvised
03:10bridge as flames burst out of the exit beneath him as he began edging his way across the ladder slipped
03:19from an icy window ledge of the university building and the man plummeted screaming to his death on the
03:26slushy cobblestones 50 feet below after the ladder was lost three wide boards were pushed across to the
03:34theater and the painters anchored them with their knees come on come on they shouted to 16 year old
03:41hortense lang who was pulling her terrified 11 year old sister irene by the arm
03:47the two girls were the first ones to make it across the plank bridge i was going to jump hortense sobbed
03:54but i thought of my mother i just grabbed irene by the hand and waited for the planks
03:59i don't know how we crossed they and their mother who had also escaped unharmed were later reunited
04:07in the northwestern building where they held hands and wept for an hour
04:11rachel gorman of the sisters of charity was especially courageous she crawled a foot or so
04:21out on the boards steadied herself by holding onto a window frame held out her arm and helped
04:28some people to safety the plank bridge worked for a while but it could not handle the crush spilling
04:34out of the theater we went over and tore people loose wrote the student george dunlap and the painters
04:40helped them across the planks we did that until the curtain on the stage let out a terrible roar and no
04:47one came out of the door we got 36 people out and laid them on the floor in the classrooms some of the
04:54women's clothing had been torn away or was in flames not knowing what else to do the young student pulled
05:00tubes of kill fire from the wall hooks and tossed the powder on the burning clothes when i threw it
05:06on their burns they stopped screaming he said he guessed it was because the powder kept air from reaching
05:12their wounds one survivor later admitted that she was temporarily outraged at the young student because
05:20even though the chemical powder smothered the flames around her waist some of the stuff accidentally
05:26got tossed into her mouth as she was screaming when what sounded like a bomb went off inside the theater
05:34those at the university's windows on different floors watched helplessly as people trapped in the theater
05:40tried to escape what they saw was beyond imagination those who swarmed from the exits and were pushed
05:48to the edge of the iron railings discovered there was no place to go the highest platform had no
05:55steps and on the other landings if anyone attempted to descend through the blinding smoke they were forced
06:02back by flames bursting out the lower exit doors and windows compounding the horror was that those who
06:09made it to the fire escapes found it impossible to turn back because of the crush behind them
06:16some of the trapped people tried crawling across the planks but in the smoke and confusion most missed
06:23their footing and plummeted to the street others whose clothing was on fire simply gave up and jumped
06:31from the railings the boards and ladders began falling away and as the fire increased and flames shot out of
06:38the doors and windows along the theater's wall many were burned to death in full view of the students
06:44from some of the higher northwestern university windows they looked into the theater at what appeared
06:50to be one solid wall of flames in the inferno they could see men women and children running about the
06:58victims did not look human one witness described them as crawling things mrs f r baldwin of minneapolis and her
07:07mother both of whom had been seated next to one of the fire escapes had taken only three or four steps
07:14before the crowd from behind flung them through the open door miraculously neither mother nor daughter
07:21were seriously hurt but as she rose to her feet mrs baldwin saw a girl lying on one of the fire escape
07:28platforms with flames shooting over her through a window something else would forever haunt her one
07:36man who had jumped from a platform about six feet off the ground had not taken two steps before a woman who
07:43jumped a moment later from a height of about 40 feet came down right on him killing him on the spot
07:52couch place was a smoking flaming hell too narrow for effective aerial ladder work in that narrow alley
08:00swarming with people william salers at last found captain jennings told him that people were cut off and
08:08helped engine 13's pipe men drag the nozzle end of a hose line of the lower iron stairs the water came
08:15at once he said and i hollered play away 13 the pressure was reduced slightly so that firefighters
08:22could drench those victims whose clothing was on fire if the full force of the stream had struck them
08:29it was feared that the victims might have been pushed back into the flames
08:33firemen heard pounding from behind iron shuttered doors and windows they tried to wrench them
08:40open with axes and claw bars above them people many of whom were being burned alive were pushed onto
08:48the unfinished fire escape platform which led nowhere body after body thudded onto the cobblestones
08:57at first the firefighters tried using nets to catch the jumpers but the mesh was woven
09:03of black material and in the dense smoke impossible to see they were useless countless numbers of
09:11people leapt from the fire escapes that afternoon and the ones who survived did so only because they
09:16landed on the bodies of those who had preceded them
09:20snow is falling everywhere
09:26snow is falling all the time
09:31all the time
09:40all the time
09:52all the time
09:54all the time
09:58everything
10:10all the time
10:12all the time
10:15out
10:17No one had exact figures of how many people made it across the improvised Plank Bridge,
10:39but 125 victims were removed from the slushy cobblestones in Couch Place that afternoon.
10:48Ruthie Thompson had no memory of being carried out of the theater through the scenery doors,
10:53but, like something out of a nightmare, she recalled waves of black cloth streamed over me.
11:01For one moment, I thought I was dead, but I wasn't even hurt.
11:05Ruthie had fallen to the ground and crawled beneath the raised edge of the theater's carriage step.
11:11For what must have seemed like an eternity, the child had remained wedged into a small opening,
11:17while a torrent of people had swept over me.
11:20I crouched there until no one else came out, and then I stood up and looked around.
11:25She would always recall seeing panic-stricken people, firemen, hoses, swarms of humanity, running up and down the alley.
11:34In a northwestern classroom, George Dunlap had run into an unexpected problem.
11:41Before blankets and sheets had arrived from nearby department stores,
11:44there were many female victims lying on the floor, naked.
11:48Some guy kept gawking at them.
11:50I told him three times to get some cans of killfire hanging in the hall.
11:55He didn't go.
11:56I got mad and swung a half-empty can, and it struck him on the forehead, and down he went.
12:02I figured I had killed him.
12:04He lay there a long time.
12:06When police arrived and Dunlap explained what had happened,
12:09one officer was so outraged that he went for his revolver, threatening to shoot the unconscious student.
12:16Dunlap stopped him by saying that the young man was already dead.
12:20The officers hurried on, and the student who had been knocked out later regained consciousness and disappeared.
12:27William Bray of Michigan City, Indiana, hit upon the perfect Christmas gift for his 12-year-old daughter,
12:35a trip to a musical comedy in a sumptuous new theater in the big city of Chicago.
12:40As a clerk, William's wages were modest, but as an employee at the Michigan Central Railroad,
12:48he knew how to get the best fare available.
12:53Bringing joy to his daughter, Harriet, had a particular significance that year.
12:59Her mother, his wife of 19 years, Emma Booklink Bray, had suffered from tuberculosis.
13:06For two years, it was growing weaker.
13:08In fact, she lost her battle with the disease three weeks later.
13:13Putting a smile on Harriet's face with a theater excursion meant putting one on Emma's face, too.
13:20A gift that couldn't be put beneath the Christmas tree.
13:23In the years after his wife's death, he may have found a bit of solace from having been able to save Harriet from the Iroquois fire,
13:31though he'd been unable to save Emma from tuberculosis and from having spared Emma the agony of losing a child.
13:40William had purchased balcony seats on the second floor.
13:44When the fire began, her father had grabbed her hand, and, with the aid of a stranger,
13:51the three made their way through the intense heat and smoke to one of the fire escapes.
13:56Harriet remembered the human stampede, people jumping over bodies,
14:00and the terror when her father discovered that the fire exit door on their level was jammed.
14:05My father and this other fellow pounded and banged until the door opened.
14:10From there, we descended down the fire escape, only to find that the last flight of steps was also jammed.
14:17Her clothing and hair singed.
14:20Harriet waited for her father to jump the remaining twelve feet to the ground and then catch her in his arms.
14:27By then, the firemen were on the scene.
14:29I'll always remember crawling beneath the legs of the horses who pulled the fire equipment
14:35and how they stood motionless in the face of all that chaos.
14:40Captain Edward Buckley of Engine 32 was credited as being the first officer inside the theater
14:47who began evacuating victims from the front of the building.
14:51It was there in Randolph Street, not far from the entrance,
14:54that one of his men bent low over a woman to catch her last words.
14:58My child, my poor little boy, is he safe?
15:01Tell me he's safe and I can die.
15:04He is safe, said the fireman, forcing back tears.
15:08The woman died and the fireman covered her body with a blanket and carried it away.
15:12He knew nothing about her son.
15:14Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
15:29Oh, oh, oh.
15:31Let John see the throne.
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