Deputy Factory Inspector Patterson Says Laws Were Complied With in Canonsburg Theater Disaster.
NEW LAWS MAY RESULT.
Legislators Killed Act Covering Theaters on Second Floor at Last Session of the General Assembly.
BY T. H .B. Patterson.
CANONSBURG, Pa., Aug. 28. – Sitting in the Auditorium, the scene of last Saturday’s catastrophe, Deputy Factory Inspector James R. Patterson conducted the investigation which resulted in the clearing of the management from all blame.
“I will report to Chief Delaney to-night,” Mr. Patterson said, “that all the requirements of law have been complied with.”
An Italian boy, who needlessly cried “Fire,” a man whose foot unfortunately slipped at the entrance to the Morgan Opera House Saturday night, were the cause blamed by Deputy Inspector Patterson at the conclusion of his inquiry into the disaster held this morning.
A new State law, prohibiting the conducting of a theater in the second floor of a building, will probably result from the fatal panic. According to Mr. Patterson, Captain Delaney, of the department of factory inspection, introduced such a law at last session of the State Legislature and the act was defeated.
“If anyone is to blame for this terrible affair, it is the legislators of Pennsylvania,” Mr. Patterson declared.
The Morgan Opera House entrance is a trap, according to the official inspectors of the building, but the Deputy Factory Inspector explains that it complies with the requirements of the law, and that when a building has plenty of fire escapes it is difficult to have a penalty placed for having a defective entrance. Two stairways and the doors on the main floor of the theater open into the small hall from which a five foot nine inch stairway is the only exit.
To make matters worse, the doorway at the foot of the stairway is nearly a foot narrower. In this stairway a man stumbled and fell early in the excitement, blocking the exit. People pile on top of him and a minute later the doorway was full of struggling humanity, being as high as the transom.
After having interviewed many witnesses, Deputy Patterson said that he would censure no one unless it was found that the aisles of the theater were blocked.
He called C. F. Ferguson, the proprietor, before him. He emphatically denied the reports that that the aisles were blocked and testified that all exits were open, and that there was no crowd standing on the stairs, as people were passing along as fast as they could buy tickets.
Mr. Patterson agreed with Mr. Ferguson that the flash of light caused by the changing of the films was no cause for alarm. Ferguson stated that he had offered $500 reward for the arrest of the person who had started the trouble and that he had been informed by a man sitting in the gallery that two Italian boys sitting next to him had yelled. He claims that a crowd rushing in from the street blockaded the stairway after the excitement started.
Burgess W. H. Dunlop said this morning that he would bring the matter of theater up before council next
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