The Erie Daily Times, May 18, 1927 SCORES OF CHILDREN KILLED AS MADMAN WRECKS SCHOOL WITH BLAST OF DYNAMITE HEART-RENDING SCENES ENACTED AS PARENTS FIND CRUSHED KIDDIES Bulletin By International News Bath, Mich., May 18 - Fifty to seventy-five persons are believed to have been killed in the consolidated school explosion. One report was that the maniac was killed in the basement of the school by a premature explosion. RDB note: incorrect, he blew himself up in his automobile outside. By Foster Eaton. United Press Staff Correspondent Bath, Mich., May 18. - Explosion of dynamite mysteriously planted under the foundation of the Bath Consolidated grade school here Wednesday took an estimated toll of between 30 and 40 young lives and completely demolished the west wing of the two-story brick structure. Two hours after the west wing collapsed, state troopers working under Charles Lane, chief of the fire marshal's division, reported they had found ten sticks of the explosive with slow fuses still burning under the east wing of the school. RDB note: also incorrect; there were no fuses. GREATEST CATASTROPHE Discovery of the additional explosive admittedly averted augmenting the worst tragedy that ever befell this rural village, seven miles north of the capital of Michigan where the wounded were rushed in ambulances to hospitals. The explosion which wrecked the west wing of the school at the height of the morning session was said to have been the third in Bath early Wednesday, the first occurring at the home of A.E. Kehoe, sub-postmaster, and the second virtually obliterating Kehoe's automobile in which he was sitting at the curb in front of the school. RDB note: incorrect; the school exploded second, Kehoe's car third. ADULT VICTIMS. Kehoe, with E.E. Huyck, principal of the school, were listed among the adult dead while the toll of pupils was estimated at more [than] thirty. Glen Smith, postmaster of the town, was fatally injured and taken to a Lansing hospital where he died shortly before noon. Immediately after the explosion the little village of 300 population was a scene of frenzied, panic stricken activity as word followed the report of the explosion itself that many of the pupils in the school had been killed. The only telephone line out of the town was at once commandeered by authorities and kept busy calling for firemen, doctors, nurses and ambulances. FIND TRAGIC SCENE. Meanwhile nurses and physicians who arrived from Lansing found a tragic scene at the school where in one row 21 small bodies had been laid out while rescuers tore away at the ruins in an effort to extricate additional bodies. The injured were at once transferred to ambulances and sent to Lansing, seven miles by county road. Work of the physicians and nurses [was] hampered by the heart breaking search of parents for their children. Parents went from group to group and the general resuce activity was frequently interrupted by the sobbing of a mother who had found what she feared most to find. HEARTRENDING SCENES ENACTED Standing above a huddled form beneath a blanket, a mother and father were clasped in each other's arms, both in tears. They had been led to the spot by a friend. A blanket was raised and the father turned the mother's face away in an effort to spare her. His convulsive sob, however, told the story. But the mother turned in time to see a second blanket raised and beneath it the form of another of her children. The mother collapsed in the arms of the father just as he, too, fainted, dropping at the feet of their two children. WORK WITH WOUNDED CHILDREN None of the parents, exhausted from frantic search of the ruins, were given medical attention as all of the available physicians were working with the wounded children. When adults collapsed they were either ignored or turned over to whatever attention those witnessing the tragedy could proffer them. -------- Injured Children Rushed to Hospital. By United Press Lansing, Mich., May 18. - Fourteen casualties from the Consolidated school explosion at Bath were brought to the Edward W. Sparrow hospital here before noon Wednesday and immediately overtaxed the available emergency facilities. The first 12 children to be brought to the hosptial were Howard Hoffman, Lester Stovell, Evan Gubbins, Earl Chapman, Ivan Eschpruth, Carl Steepleton, Otila Nichols, Florence Huster, Ava Sweet, Martha H. Richardson, Ida Delen and Lee Mast. The children's ages range from 7 to 13 years. Shortly after noon two aditional injured were brought to the hospital. They were June Hoffman, sister of Howard, and Lloyd Babcock.