MOUNT AIRY SCHOOL FIRE KILLS CHILD.
SEVERAL TEACHERS AMONG 30 PERSONS INJURED IN ESCAPE.
Mount Airy, -- (AP)
-- All but one of more than one of [sic] more
than 400 terrified youngsters scrambled out of
windows or dashed through doors as a lightning
fast fire raged through their school here
yesterday.
The toll stood today at one dead and about 30
injured. The school is a smoking ruin.
Many of the grade-school children teetered
fearfully on window ledges of the one-story
brick building and had to be helped or pushed
out.
Several teachers suffered painful injuries as
they herded their charges to safety. At least
one was burned critically in the room where a
boy's body was found.
A. P. PHILLIPS, principal of the Flat Rock
School, said, "We never dreamed anybody could
get trapped with so many exits." There were
four, two at both front and rear.
The fire started at the rear of the auditorium
surrounded by classrooms.
Spread Fast.
"It's unbelieveable how fast the flames and
smoke filled the building," PHILLIPS said.
PHILLIPS said he did not know how the fire
started. He said he was told by a student that
the blazes broke out in the stage curtains. Fire
Chief J. ED BRANNOCK said the origin of the fire
had not been determined.
Firemen said the building, erected about 1925,
was destroyed in less than an hour after the
fire started about 1:15 p.m.
LARRY ADAMS, 9-year-old third grader, was the
only one who didn't get out. His teacher, MRS.
CORA BEASLEY, was among five critically burned.
Spectators said they assumed MRS. BEASLEY had
tried to the last to help LARRY escape.
LARRY was the son of RAY ADAMS, a mill worker
here. The father stood silently by as the search
for his son's body was made.
"What can you do?" he asked hopelessly.
The fire chief said the ADAMS boy was a polio
victim, having been afflicted in the arms. The
school principal said the youngster was
overweight and "moved about very poorly."
At Dobson, where several of the injured children
were hospitalized, DR. D. A. McLAURIN said, "I
would like everybody to know that this is the
bravest group of children I have ever seen
anywhere."
He said he was afradi "there are going to be
many, many disfigured faces."
The fire was confined to the 14-classroom
elementary school. Three adjacent buildings were
not damaged. A fire engine and the city
sprinkler truck with a tank full of water were
dispatched within minutes of the alarm. A nearby
water tank was useless in the fight because
there was no way to attach hoses. The tank later
collapsed.
"If we had had any number of trucks I don't
believe it could have been saved," PHILLIPS
remarked.
"The thing that troubles me," he reflected, a
frown wrinkling his scorched forehead, "is what
could we have done to keep it from happening?"
The Daily Times-News
Burlington North Carolina 1957-02-23