1. Incident

2. Aftermath

3. References

The 1954 Cleveland Hill school fire was a fire and explosion that occurred on March 31, 1954 at the Cleveland Hill Union Free School District's elementary school facility annex in Cheektowaga, New York.^[1] The eight classroom wooden annex was added onto the existing brick school building to accommodate the influx of new students resulting from the "Baby Boom" following World War II.

Incident

There was a sixth grade music class being held in the annex at the time of the explosion and fire which claimed the lives of 15 sixth-grade students along with injuring 19 students, three teachers and the school's principal.^[2] Among those who survived but suffered severe burns was American folk musician Jackson C. Frank and the treatment of the burn victims from this fire was cited in later medical journals.^[3] Many of the victims perished because they were unable to open the windows that were either locked or stuck. When the glass was broken to provide an avenue of escape they were cut trying to fit through the small size of the window panes. The cause of the fire was never determined but it may have been caused by a defective furnace that had been leaking fumes or possibly spontaneous combustion inside a storage closet.^[1]

Aftermath

The annex facility was made entirely of wood and following the disaster there was a movement to introduce building codes that prohibited wooden buildings from housing schools.^[3] Other changes that came about because of the fire were fire drills, rules regarding window type and size, school construction methods and school communications with fire departments.^[4][5]

References

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• List of minor planets: 378001–379000
• List of minor planets/37801-37900
• List of minor planets: 379001–380000
• List of minor planets/37901-38000
• List of minor planets: 380001–381000