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Though nothing was reported about Ralph's
experience at the Iroquois Theater, or his
companions, some of the circumstances can be
guessed at. He was one of hundreds who tried to evacuate
through a fire escape exit but it was far enough
in the fire's progress that flames pouring from
other exits and windows, and blockages on the
stairwell, prevented descent on the metal fire
escape stairway. Painting contractors in a nearby Northwestern
University stretched ladders, then wood
planks from their building to the fire escape
landings at the theater. About fifty people
who made the crossing on planks survived, though most
then died of burn and
inhalation injuries. Of those who tried to
cross on ladders, most fell off and died. The
painting contractors were unable to get good
holds on the ends of the ladders so as to pin
them firmly in place. Ralph is the only one I've
found who survived the fall. It was in the
twenty to twenty-five foot range, the landing
almost certainly softened by a cushion
of other bodies on the Couch Place alley floor.
The injury to his skull may well have come from
crashing into the skull or limb of someone he'd
been sitting next to in the audience moments
before.
He was taken unconscious to Passavant Hospital
(today part of
Northwestern Memorial Hospital) and after a
stay of unknown length left with a bad chest
laceration and a plate in his head.
Childhood
Born when the family lived in Austria, Ralph was the oldest of nine
of
Joseph Kompare
and
Francis Ancel. Joseph was a saloon
keeper in the Millgate section of Chicago's south side who played an
important role for Slovenian immigrants arriving
in Chicago. He helped them with
translation, jobs and finding lodging.
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In the years after the fire
In 1908, as the clock ran out on a filing
deadline, Ralph sued the theater owners and Fuller Construction, builder of the theater,
for $20,000. He was one
of thirty-five victims who received a $750
settlement from Fuller Construction (inflation
adj. $27k). Those thirty-five people were the
only victims of America's worst theater fire who
received compensation. The people
responsible for designing a building with a hive
of stairwells and opening a theater without an
alarm system, adequate extinguishers, running
water or operable stage vents, paid nothing.
In 1912 Ralph became one of
Chicago's first Slovenian-American attorneys —
and went on to serve as secretary of Chicago's
South Side Bar Association for fifteen years.
The following year he married Helen Meagher,
with whom he had four children. Both his sons
served in World War II.
On his WWI draft card he was
described as short and slender with brown eyes
and hair.
In his 2006 book, On Having a Heart Attack, a Medical Memoir,
grandson
William O'Rourke, provided a sad account of
Ralph's last days. Two of his children had
contracted scarlet fever and the household was
quarantined so Ralph went to stay at his office.
He died alone there of cerebral hemorrhage at
age forty-nine, his body found later. His
family struggled financially after his death.
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