EXPLOSION FROM KEROSENE LAMP RESULTS IN DISASTROUS FIRE AT SCHOOLHOUSE IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Cleveland, South Carolina (JFK+50) On May 18, 1923, the Seattle Star reports "seventy-six crushed and blackened bodies" were found inside a Cleveland* school house last evening when "400 proud parents, friends and children" were trapped after an explosion from a kerosene lamp touched off a "disastrous fire."
N.D. Niles writes that some victims were "trampled in the panic which followed the cry of 'fire'," while others were injured jumping from windows.
A play was being performed at the school titled "Topsy Turvy," a comedy. The small village of Cleveland, population 490, saw fifteen percent of its total population killed in the tragedy.
*Cleveland is an unincorporated community of Greenville County located in NW South Carolina near the NC border. In 2020, its population was 1,347.
SOURCE
"Parents, Pupils, Relatives Burn in Schoolhouse," by N.D. Niles, The Seattle Star, May 18, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
