NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 80

SCHOOLHOUSE
DISASTER
THE 1915 ST. JOHN'S PAROCHIAL
SCHOOL FIRE
By Caitlin Walker
n October 28, 1915, classes had
just begun for the day at St. John's
Parochial School in Peabody, Massachusetts, when the Sister Superior
discovered a fire. The three-story
schoolhouse had two stairways on the first floor,
with basement entrances located under each
stairway, and flames were shooting out of both
basement doorways. A nun opened front and rear
exits on the first floor, and the Sister ran to the
second floor to sound the alarm.
Students on the second and third floors began
making their way down the stairways, while the
younger children on the first floor headed for the
exits. The students had regular fire drills where

FIRE INCIDENTS AND
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS
FROM SAFETY HISTORY

they had successfully exited
the building in less than a
minute and a half. As the
smoke and flames rapidly
increased, however, many
students began to panic as
they approached the front
exit. A child fell in the front
vestibule, followed by others,
blocking the exit. The students behind the trapped
children made their way to
safety through the rear exit
or by jumping out of classroom windows. Meanwhile,
nuns, the janitor, and concerned neighbors desperately tried to rescue the trapped students from
the front exit until the heat and smoke intensified and forced them back.
A local fireman who lived nearby saw smoke coming from the school
windows and notified the fire department before racing to help. By the
time the Peabody Fire Department arrived, fire had spread throughout
the building, trapping additional children. A Fire Engineering article
described how a Sister rescued several children from the second floor
by tossing them out of a window onto safety nets below. With the help
of fire departments from neighboring towns, the blaze was brought
under control in about an hour. By then, though, the school was all but
destroyed, and 21 children had been killed.
George C. Neal, a local police official, said that the fire most likely
started in the closet or rubbish bins in the basement but could not determine the cause. The official report indicated that the school's exits met
the requirements of the law but that additional exits should have been
constructed and that the fire drills should have included imaginary fires
to teach the children alternative exit strategies in response to a blocked
exit. Neal warned that "the old buildings used for school purposes must be
made reasonably safe if we do not wish a repetition of the Peabody disaster," and provided 15 precautions to prevent future school fires. The school
was rebuilt the following year and a memorial was erected in 2005.
THE NFPA LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE holds a rich collection of books, reports, and photographs
that document important moments in fire history. To provide better electronic access for researchers and to preserve our unique archival holdings, work has begun to digitize the files of the Fire
Record Department, the original NFPA department responsible for collecting and analyzing information and compiling statistics about key fires and other events. The incidents featured in "Looking
Back" are drawn from this collection and will eventually be part of NFPA's online archive. For information, visit nfpa.org/library.

NFPA RESEARCH LIBRARY & ARCHIVES

Looking Back

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NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

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