Collingwood School Fire
Ash Wednesday March 4th, 1908
My father told me all about this fire and how several of our relatives were in it. As a teenager I had very little knowledge of our family and even less of tragedies. I was very interested and went to the local library where I was able to look at the microfilm for Cleveland's newspapers for that day. I printed out the accounts and read them best I could. They were emotional and horrifying. I immediately got over any "thrill" that I might have associated with it. I could find no stories about our family in the newspapers.
My father was born 9 years after this and only knew what he was told. When I began to research my family's history I started with what I knew. I was told that my father had a brother that had saved a bunch of lives by holding one of the doors open allowing children to escape. This hero was recognized by the city and later went on to be a fire chief for a near by city called Brathenough.
So that's where I started. I called the Bratenahl Fire Department and was led to talk to the fire historian who informed me that no one named Gerbic ever worked for that fire department. Once I started interviewing more relatives I found that it was Frank Gerbic (yes my father's older brother) that survived the fire. No one knows of any hero stuff, he was in second grade and jumped/or was thrown out the second floor window. So much for family fact!
To read about the deaths of sisters Emily and Anna Gerbic in this fire, go to their site.
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