Third Worst In Nation |
CHICAGO, Dec. 3 - (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 Chicago in 55 years. |
The greatest school disaster occurred March 18, 1937, when 294 died in a school explosion and fire in New London, Tex. |
The other major school fire claimed 176 lives in the Collinwood School in Cleveland March 4, 1908. |
The worst fire in Chicago took 602 lives Dec. 30, 1903, when the Iroquois Theater burned. |
On June 5, 1946, 61 persons perished in a fire in the LaSalle Hotel, Chicago. |
There have been 26 fires in this country in which as many as 50 persons died. Two were school fires. Only eight fires with such a loss of life have occurred in the last 20 years, none of them in schools. |
Worst of these recent fires was the Cocoanut Grove Night Club blaze in Boston 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, Ga. |
Oct. 20, 1944 - 135 killed in Cleveland liquid gas explosion and fire. |
July 6, 1944 - 168 dead in Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus fire at Hartford, Conn. |
April 23, 1940 - 198 killed in Negro dance hall fire at Natchez, Miss. |