Remembering the Cleveland School Fire

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — May 17, 1923, it’s a night the town of Camden will never forget. “A graduation ceremony, a play put on by the children,” says Ken Kerber, President of the South Carolina Firefighter’s Association. The event would soon take a tragic turn. “At approximately 9:00 p.m., during the last act an oil lamp fell from a lamp that was hanging on the stage, shortly thereafter the curtains caught fire,” says Kerber 300 people were inside and the only way out was a stairwell just 30 inches wide. “They lost their vision, they lost their way in the panic, they started stumbling over each other and over the chairs,” says Kerber A model of the school now sits at the site of the fire. “A lot of babies were dropped out of windows into the arms of others,” says Kerber In all, 77 people died, their names are imprinted on a monument at the site of the fire. “Every family in the Southern part of Kershaw County lost a loved one in this fire,” says Representative Laurie Funderburk, D- Kershaw. “My grandfather died in the fire, my grandmother and my uncle survived,” says Jack West, Spokesperson for the victim’s families. Among the dead was the star of the play and her Dad. “Her father went back in to get her because he got seperated from her and one of the men said that you know, if you go back in you probably won’t make it out and he said he would die with her,” says Pastor John Howle, Beulah Baptist Church. It was an event that would forever change the town of Camden. “My grandmother until her dying day would say that was before the fire or after the fire,” says West. But it also led the way for change. “Fire escapes, doors opening to the outside, increased stairwell widths and flame retardant material would become mandatory for public buildings,” says Representative Funderburk. Thursday, state and fire officials along with family members gathered to remember. Later family members visited the mass grave site for the victims at Beulah Baptist Church. A tragic reminder of the tragic night of the fire.