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Show DAILY Sunday, April 23, 2006 HERAL GOT HISTORY? The Daily Heraldis looking for interesting stories about local history for this weekly page. Make suggestions or submit material by email to Executive Editor Randy Wright, rwright@heraldextra.com. Or mail to the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 717; Provo, UT 84603-0717. No phone calls please. D. Robert Carter ulu Boyer Alexander and her husband Williamstayed in Springville’s Boyer Hotel during the mysterious fires of 1891, and they escaped unscath hed. The Alexanders ot so lucky a decade 1903, whenthe family ander went to medical school. Lulu. who wasatalented 1 Boyer. loved the nd attended a Decemperformanceof ard” in Chicago's \quois Theater. Midway secondact. the caughtfire. actors calmed we, The stage hands » extinguish thefire in caught on g stand of 15 feet or he stage floor of the audience, includ- e Alexanders, stayed relaalmvand remained seated I ten minutesafter the red. Because of rapidly ons, they did not seats much longer. ing’s windows. Fleeing theater leries, the interior of the theater resembled a burned out volcano crater. Soon, the cries of the injured in the balconies and elsewherein the theater ceased. Somewherein the neighbor- patrons could openonly one out hood of 600 theatergoers died The fleeing audience found it difficult to leave the theater through emergency exits Heavy. bolted. sheet-iron doors covered the outside of the build- escape doors swung inward makingit almost impossible to open them because of the press- ing crushof people. Those lucky enoughto get outof thefire exits on the upper floors found that workmenhad installed balconies outside the doors. but many of the porches nding a monstrous nes under the ain and lapping peoplesitting in. v. Thefire evenlicked 9th of the balconies. ing blast touched off a npede for the exits. amming the doorways with st trampled. squirming bodies. Pandemoniumreigned and tragedies aboundedas panicstricken people surged toward anyavailable exit try to pass through one doorwayat one time.” still lacked ladders descending to the ground flooralley. People jumpedor were pushed from About 150 nurses and 100 doctors,including Dr. Alexander, arrived at the theater in a short length of time. Alexander the platfor ms to the concrete 30 to 50 feet below. Their piled was just across the street when hereceived newsofthe fire. He hurried to the theater, and for a short time, he assisted in front bodies blocked some of the lowerexits that opened outward. Frank Houseman, a former of the building with the injured second basemanfor Chicago. helped force open one of the lower exits. Then he squeezed out ad, Vv the bodies -d so the door could open wi Houseman helped keep the doorway from clogging with bodies by pulling out those who hadfallen or were wedgedin the doorway Whenthe flames forced Frank fromhis station near the exit door. stepped back into the Soon after he had retr way, he he ading tothe alley he theater. When ‘opened ablast of into the burning or were mortally injured in about 15 horrible minutes. Perhapsin an effort to save face, Chicago's Chief Fire Marshall latertold a reporter, “It seems to methat thereis nothing in the world . . that can savelives when1,,000 of a half dozen windows. Fire door. r-stricken OF voice from an eat ChicagoTheater Disaster Fire consumed the ie of the Iroquois Theater and charredthe seats on the main floor close to the Stage. For ten minutes after thefire began, the audience remainedrelatively calm. Then a tongue offlamelicked out from underthe jammedfire curtain androlled over the audience. eSeee writer described the bone-chill- ing sceneat oneof these door- scream, “Catch me’ House: manstretchedout his arr prepared to catchthe st ways: "The dead were found stretchedin a pile reaching trom the head of the stairway at least eight feet from the door He broke fall, and mira¢ in the rearof the door. This mass of dead bodies fly it was ever his ried away fror scene with minor injurie Thegreatestloss of curred in the upper < balconies of the the majority of the sat. Three door exits for each of For some unknow majority of the occ both balconies pushed to. _______ the'doors onthe left, and those exits soonclogged. After thefire, a newspaper back toa point aboutfive feet for his loved ones. lineof dead bodies fifty feet long and twoorthree feet deep lying on the sidewalk in front ofthe theater startled the worried doctor. Men in ambulances and trucks hurriedly carried the dead to morgues and temporary identification stations. in the center of the doorway reached to within twofeet of the topofthe passageway. All of the corpses at this point were womenandchildren. ‘Womenontop of these masses of dead had been over- é Ge at ChicagoTheater Disaster This main doorwayled fromthefirst balconyto the stairs taken by death as they were crawling ontheir hands and knees overthe bodies of those who haddied before.” descending to the theater lobby on the mainfloor. At this site the greatest loss of life occurred when peoplefell and were epee to death intheir rush for the door. The rushing. trampling. crushing crowd caused the majority of the fatalities. Many of the victim’s faces had been tromped and crushed beyond leading to the lobbypresented a similar scene. As soonas the recognition. firemen arrived. they cleared fallen bodies from these lower The downstairs doorways exits. Thefirefighters raised ladders from the main floor into the balconies and rescued a few survivors. From upin the gal- 6aleeaiteksie palays ea de = FREE * Waterfall JetPak or *Infrared BBQ” andthe dead. Not knowing the extent of the disaster, Dr. Alexander then proceeded to the hospital where hecontinued caring for the injured. The new doctor reasoned thatif his wife and children werehurt, he would be able to carefor themin the hospital. WhenAlexander was almost ly from taking careofthe living victims andstill had not found his family, he received word that firemen, policemen and others werehauling dead bodies out of the theater by the hundreds. He immediately returned to the burned out building to search GET EVEN HIGHER CD RATES WITH ZIONS DIRECT. 1 YEAR 5 YEAR 9.05%*" 5.30%" To learn aboutthe advantagesof our brokered, FDIC Insured CDs, comein to any Zions Bankbranch,call 1-800-524-8875 or visit zionsdirect.com. . Doctors used a nearby saloon for a medical station in which to servethe injured. On the floorlay a hugepileof furs and clothing removed from the victims of the fire. Next to the heap ofclothing lay five bushelbasketsfilled with purses, gloves and handbags. Twobarrels filled with shoes and overshoes also stood nearby. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous men took advantage of the hectic situation in this makeshift medical station. Angels of mercy carried Mrs. C_J. Trask into the Illinois Saloon just a fewdoors from the theater. She was seriously injured andclose to death. For safe keeping, a doctor handed the grog house's proprietor, Louis Wilz, $210 belonging to Mrs. Trask. Wilz turned $11 overto the police when they arrived, saying that was all of the money she carried. He divided the other $199 with saloon patrons. Thepolice later confronted the men about the missing money and received confessions from all of the thieves. The doctor whohanded Wilz the money mustnot havebeen as trusting as the bartender suspected. During his frantic search that night, Dr. Alexander found noneofhis family. He sent a dispatch to Don Carlos Johnson in Springville, telling his friend that Lulu, Melba and Boyer had Continued on B5 ZIONSGag ZIONS BANK’ 118 East Main « Lehi 768-9514 Member FDIC + ZionsDirect, Inc. (Member NASD,SIPC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Zions Bank. INTEGRITY dt’s what every person Should expect. It’s what every person receives at Wing. oo, si beloe maturity, the APFmaybe higher sc lone than quoted Mountain West Foot & Ankle Institute Brandt R. Gibso n, DPM Specialized Foot &Ankle Care Patients throughoutthe intermountain west have come to knowthatIntermountain Vein Center offers the most comprehensive care for vein disease. Ourboard certified doctors work with you to developthe mosteffective, non- invasive and quick healing treatmentforall types of varicose veins. 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