School Fire Chicago's Worst in 55 Years |
CHICAGO, Dec. 2 - (AP) - The fire that struck Our Lady of the Angels School Monday was the third worst school fire in the nation in the last 100 years and the worst in the city in 55 years. |
The greatest school disaster occurred March 18, 1937, when 294 died in a school explosion and fire in New London, Texas. |
The other major school fire claimed 176 lives in the Collinwood School in Cleveland on March 4, 1908. |
There have been 26 fires in this country in which as many as 50 persons died. |
More than 1,900 were injured in that conflagration. |
Twelve years ago, 61 persons perished in a fire in the LaSalle Hotel, Chicago. Nearly 230 others were injured in that blaze June 5, 1946, 30 of them seriously. |
The worst fire in Chicago took 602 lives on Dec. 30, 1903, when the Iroquois Theater burned. |
Worst of these recent fires was Coconut Grove Night Club blaze in Boston on Nov. 28, 1942, in which 498 died. |
Other fires with major losses of life in the last two decades are: Dec. 7, 1946 - 119 dead in Winecoff Hotel Fire, Atlanta, George. |