- She died in the Boyertown Opera House Fire.
The Rhoads Opera House, located in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, caught fire on January 13, 1908 during a church-sponsored stage play. The fire started when a kerosene lamp was knocked over, lighting gasoline from a stereoscopic machine. The stage and auditorium were located on the 2nd floor and all auxiliary exits were either unmarked or locked. One fire escape was available but unable to be accessed through a locked window above a 3 foot sill. 170 people perished when the exit was crowded against to escape the fire. Entire families were wiped out.
[The kerosene lights that were overturned were on the stage at the front of the room. The stereopticon machine was set up at the rear of the room, 50 feet away. The burning kerosene ignited the curtains, stage sets, walls, floors, ceiling, etc., but did not ignite the tanks of the stereopticon machine. There was no gasoline in the auditorium. The stereopticon tanks contained oxygen and hydrogen, and neither ignited nor exploded.
The article is correct in saying the exits were not marked, they weren't. There were 4 exits to the auditorium itself. The main entrance which was a set of double swinging doors, that opened both in and out, a backstage stairway and door exit, that opened in, and two fire escapes accessed through windows, one on each side of the auditorium.
The backstage exit was not locked, the windows to the fire escapes were not locked. The only locked door was one of the swinging doors at the main entrance, which was bolted to control people entering. An usher, at the rear of the room, testified at the Coroner's Inquest that upon seeing flames on the stage, he immediately went to that door and unbolted it. As the people were trying to escape, there were no locked doors preventing exit. There was simply not enough time or enough exits to accommodate the large crowd.
Many of the out of town newspaper reporters were on deadlines, it was a big story, they made a lot of assumptions. Every news report has to be taken with a grain of salt.
-Betty Burdan]
Aftermath
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Philadelphians contributed relief funds of $18,000. Three morgues were set up and approximately fifteen thousand people attended funerals on a single day. One hundred and five new graves were dug in Boyertown's Fairview Cemetery.
In the days following the fire, Dr. Daniel Kohler , Burgess of Boyertown appointed a relief committee, to whom the people were asked to report the names of missing persons, and who would arrange a proper and speedy burial of the dead. The Relief Committee would act in tandem with the National Bank of Boyertown, to receive and distribute all contributions received from all sources. The Committee met three times a day the first weeks following the fire, once a day the next month and once a week for the next year. Irwin Ehst served as chairman, James Stauffer as secretary. On April 10, 1909, the Berks County Democrat, the newspaper published in Boyertown, PA, printed a detailed report of the income and expenditures of the Relief Committee. Total contributions received equaled $22,075.89. A total of $21,636.44 was expended. The largest contributors noted were Calvin Fegley, Treasurer of Pottstown ($2,000); Eishenlor Brothers Cigar Factory ($1,000) and Boyertown Burial Casket ($600).
The incident spurred the Pennsylvania legislature into passing new legislative standards for doors, landings, lighting, curtains, fire extinguishers, aisles, marked exits, and doors. All doors were required to open outward and remain unlocked. Pennsylvania governor Edwin Stuart signed Pennsylvania's first fire law on May 3, 1909.
The opera house has now been renovated into apartments and stores.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoads_Opera_House
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