It’s Wednesday, March the 4th, 1908. The imposing brick edifice we’re looking at across Collamer Avenue in Collinwood, Ohio, is the Lake View School ... Although the school is just kindergarten through sixth grade, some of the students are teenagers; up to fifteen years old. Nine teachers, all unmarried ladies, are on hand ... Today, around 350 students are in the nine rooms ... And in an hour nearly half of them will be dead, because we’re at the scene of the worst school fire in American history.

Why we make such a big deal about fire drills: The Collinwood School Fire