DISASTER IN GERMANY
(GASOMETER EXPLODES
DEATH AND DEVASTATION
(Keceived 11th February, 1 p.m.)
LONDON, 10th-February. An explosion at Neukirchen, in. the Saar Valley, hurled aloft for 100 feet the largest gasometer in the valley. It was 250 feet high and had a'capacity of 120,000 cubic feet. ~- '
The explosion, wrecked the neighbouring workmen's colony, which has a population of 2000. Over 100 people were killed and over 1000 injured, including 250 whose condition is critical.
Modern factories surrounding the scene were badly damaged. Not a window in tho district temained unbroken* Bodies were hurled across the streets. '..-• .. ■
The gasometer was blown for a mile and a half, over the railway station. •Fifty of the nearest houses were reduced to fragments, and women and children are buried- in. the ,ruins, from which Teseue is almost impossible; The explosion destroyed the , telegraph and telephone wires and strewed the. railway with wreckage, stopping the trains and bombarding the town with flying fragments of metal comparable to the wartime.
The flames were visible thirty miles away, and the blast was heard sixty jniles away. 'The entire gasworks, where 500 people were employed by the Boechling Company, became a roaring furnace, also the ironworks, necessitating frenzied efforts by the district fire brigades to.obtain control.
All the hospitals, doctors' waiting rooms, and surgeries are crammed with injured people hurried there in motorlorries and ambulances from twentyfive miles distant.
Hardly had the police placed a cordon, round the area'when fresh explosions occurred owing to the ignition of adjacent barrels of petrol, which may lead to the explosion of a second gasometer. The people are evacuating the; streets and houses within a radius of 1000 yards, fearing gas poisoning. The clergy are endeavouring to allay the panic, but many of the inhabitants have fled. , . .
The disaster is attributed to fire in a benzol store. ' '
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 11
Word Count
305DISASTER IN GERMANY Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1933, Page 11
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