This Day in History…

It was 1923, and before the year ended the world would see a great deal of meaningful change.? The USSR was formed, the Walt Disney Company was established, the burial chamber of?Tutankhamun?was opened, the famous Hollywoodland sign was unveiled on Mount Lee, Adolfe Hitler was arrested, ?an American president passed, another took his place, Pancho Villa died, Gustave Eiffel died, Charlton Heston was born, and Jackie Robinson’s American League counterpart, Larry Dobey, was born in the small town of Camden, South Carolina.

On May 17, 1923, Larry Dobey’s hometown had to endure a tragedy that is exceedingly difficult to fathom.? Imagine that you live in a small agricultural community in rural South Carolina, and in the matter of an hour or two, 77 of your neighbors perished.? Unfortunately, this is precisely what took place at the Cleveland School, and this disaster affected virtually every family in the Camden area.

It is hard to believe now, but it was a widely accepted practice years ago to construct temporary buildings.? To see many examples of this, consider the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.? You may notice that almost none of the structures built for the fair are still in place.? This is because they were only meant to last for the duration of the event.? As you can imagine these temporary structures tended to be constructed with inexpensive materials with little regard for fire safety.? The Cleveland School near Camden was just such a structure.

The Cleveland School was built to bridge a short gap of a year or two until a new permanent structure could be completed.? The 8th Grade Play and Graduation on May 17th, 1923 were set to mark the final use of the building.

The school was a small ?simple building with 2 classrooms on the 1st floor and an auditorium on the second floor.? The only access to the 2nd floor was via a very narrow set of wooden stairs (See Plan View Below).? Electricity had not yet made it to the area, so lighting was provided by oil-burning lamps.? The structure was comprised mostly of flammable materials like wooden structural members and finishes.? As was customary at the time, students from multiple grade levels were housed in the same classroom.? At the Cleveland School, 2 classrooms and 3 teachers somehow accommodated students from 1st through the 8th grade.

On the evening of May 17th, approximately 300 people gathered in the school’s 2nd Floor Auditorium to see the 8th Grade Play entitled “Topsy Turvy”.? Just a brief look at the school’s floor plan reveals that 300 occupants is excessive by today’s standard, and the narrow single staircase represents a potential death trap.

At approximately 9 P.M., the final act of the play began, and an oil-burning lamp fell from the ceiling above the stage and started a fire on the stage floor below.? Initial efforts to suppress the fire proved futile, and the fire spread quickly to the flammable stage curtain.? In a matter of seconds, the occupants began to struggle to make their way down the narrow stairway and out of the building.? Some jumped from 2nd floor windows, but most pushed their way towards the stairwell.? Some victims were crushed to death in the stairwell.? A few made it to safety only to re-enter the building in unsuccessful attempts to rescue family members.? At some point the stairwell collapsed under the weight of frantic victims.? When volunteer firefighters arrived on the scene there was little that they could do to improve the situation.

When the sun came up the next morning survivors combed through the debris field in hopes to positively identify loved ones.? Only 10 victims could be identified.? The remaining 67 victims could not be positively identified, and the decision was taken to bury them together in one large grave.

Today a monument bearing the names of all of the victims stands at the site where the school once stood.

The Cleveland School fire remains the deadliest fire in South Carolina history and the 4th deadliest school fire in the history of the United States.

Thankfully, the fire triggered grave concerns regarding fire safety and many real improvements were codified.? New requirements included adequate exits, exterior fire escapes, alarm systems, fire retardant building materials, maximum capacity guidelines, improved lighting/heating installations, portable fire extinguishers, mandated exit drills. and training for personnel.

As proof that real fire safety improvements were made, I offer the case of Mt. Zion High School…

A few years after the Cleveland School fire and 30 miles up the road, the town of Winnsboro, South Carolina built Mt. Zion High School.? A few years ago, I had the pleasure of touring the Mt. Zion High School with representatives from SC DHEC.? What I saw there convinced me that it was a school that was built with fire safety in mind by people who had not forgotten the Cleveland School fire.

Mt. Zion High School was designed and built with:

ü Bricks and mortar with minimal wooden elements;

ü A fire escape;

ü Asbestos-containing plaster and wire lathe (walls & ceilings);

ü Asbestos-containing flooring;

ü Asbestos-containing thermal system insulation;

ü Asbestos-containing slate chalk boards;

ü Asbestos-containing mastic holding the chalk boards in place;

ü Asbestos-containing fireproofing

ü Asbestos-containing proscenium curtain in auditorium;

ü Asbestos-containing paint in mechanical spaces.

A question for us to consider…

By employing so many asbestos-containing materials in the construction of Mt Zion High School, did we just trade one hazard for another?

Imprimis FHS – Specializing in Expert Witness Services in the field of Environmental Health & Safety.? [email protected]?? (843) 209-2951.