The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Collinwood School fire recalls tragedy
110th anniversary marked with ceremony at Lake View Cemetery
Needed fire code changes resulted after many children lost their lives in school fire.
Tom Wendorff’s father was a private man.
That may explain why Tom had never heard about four of his relatives perishing in the Collinwood school fire in 1908. Distant cousin Clara Wendorff and James, Maxwell and Norman Turner — siblings of his great uncle — were among the 172 Lakeview Elementary students who lost their lives.
“I was doing research in the family tree and saw three Turners died the same day, and put 2 and 2 together,” said Wendorff, of Worthington. He attended a commemoration of the fire’s 110th anniversary March 4 at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.
The cemetery is home to a monument marking the spot where 19 unidentified children lost in the fire are buried. About 30 other students and a teacher also were laid to rest at Lake View.
“Collinwood lost a generation that day,” said Mary Louise Jesek Daley, chairwoman of the Collinwood Nottingham Historical Society, which organized the event along with Lake View Cemetery Foundation.
Other commemorative activities included a reception the evening of March 4 at St. Mary’s Church — hit hard by the tragedy — and a fire safety program March 5 at Memorial School, one of the schools built on the site of the fire, at 410 East 152nd St.
“History is cyclical, and we cannot forget,” Jesek Daley said. “It’s still relevant, especially when we’re talking about children being unsafe in schools. We may have less fires today, but because of the Collinwood school fire, fire safety regulations did change, were relooked at and are constantly relooked at.”
A number of building deficiencies contributed to its demise and to so many children getting trapped inside, according to the historical society’s website.
The fire began when an overheated furnace ignited exposed dry wood in the boiler room. Obstruction of exits, narrow stairs and the school’s highly flammable structure were blamed for the death toll. Many died from suffocation or being crushed in their attempt to escape.
“Anything that could go wrong went wrong that day,” Jesek Daley said.
Changes made to school buildings throughout the country included requirements for iron staircases, concrete floors, fireproof coverings for pipes, the placement of doors directly in front of staircases, and unobstructed doorways.
Jesek Daley is passionate about piecing together more of the past. The Internet has helped in the efforts to find the graves of all the children, some of whom were buried out of state.
“We have been able to identify probably 90 percent of where our children our buried,” she said.
“We still would like to find a list of all the students that were in that school that day. There was so much focus on the victims that they forgot about the families (left behind).”