The Babbs Switch fire on December 24, 1924 killed thirty-six people in a one-room school house at Babbs Switch, Oklahoma, USA. Whole families died and more than half the dead were children.
The fire broke out during a Christmas Eve party when a lighted candle decorating a Christmas tree came in contact with the cotton trim on a Santa Claus suit. The flames spread quickly over the entire room. Contributing to the deaths were screened over windows and a door that opened inward. It is said by some that this is why public buildings now have doors that open outward instead of inward.
The nationwide publicity over the fire led to stricter fire safety codes for schools and other public buildings.
The fire gave rise to a famous hoax. Thirty six bodies were recovered, but not that of three-year old Mary Edens. In 1957, Grace Reynolds of Barstow, California came forward, claiming to be the long-lost child. She published a book and appeared on the Art Linkletter's House Party television program. A local newspaper editor knew the story to be fraudulent, but withheld the information until 1999 at the request of Mary Edens' father, who believed his wife could not endure losing her child a second time.[1]