Terrible Fire in Madras

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 89, 3 February 1887, Page 3

Terrible Fire in Madras

FEABFUL LOSS OF LIFE

By Electric Telegraph. - Copyright

(beuteb's telkgbams.) M tBOTTKNK, February 1.

Indian papers which are to hand publish accounts of the tire which occurred in the People's Park at Madras on the eve of the Ist of January, and ■which was the most awful catastrophe ever known there. The fire broke out in the evening simultaneously on each side of a large circle of temporary buildings which had beeu erected for band-stands in the entrance of the People's Park, where the annual fair was being held. The people's fair this year was celebrated on an unusually large scale, and was to have lasted six days in honor of the jubilee of Queen Victoria. The chief celebration took place in the band-stand, on the enclosure, which was 200 yards broad. The enclosure was filled with booths built of wood, and with cadjan roofs, and had four entrances, at which fees were collected for admission. Shortly after 6on New Year's Eve, about 6000 persons were in the enclosure, in concluding the Commanderin Chief, Lady Arbuthuot, and a number of Europeans. Suddenly a booth on one side caught fire, and almost simultaneously the booth directly opposite was seen to be in flames. A dreadful pauie ensued, and a rush was made for the four eutrauees, wheie the startled crowd were met by peojjle coming in. Two of the entrances were soon completely jammed, and in a few minutes the terrorstrickeu people formed helpksss pileb and masses of struggling humanity. The flames swept down a*s the people fought aud struggled on the ground, those oh the top being roasted to death and those below smothered The fire only seems to have lasted foi a quarter of an hour, during which 2U booths were burnt. Thej were chii-fly occupied by men, whoj in the rush for the gates, thrust aside child en an i women. Had the Natives kept themselves under control of the Europeans they might have been saved, as there was plenty of room in. the enclosures to save all of them, and to avoid the fire as it darted from point to point. But as it was 250 persons were smothered and burned to death in the Park itself, and 70 or 80 men have since died' of their injuries in the Madras Hospital. When the enclosure was carefully inspected in the morning it was found that large tracts of ground had escaped the flames altogether. Here flowers and oina- | mental shrubs ha^ not even been fiiuged Fifteen of the natives, maddened by the flames, had fasteued on . ornaments and plunged into the tank where they were drowned. One Mr Walker was pulled out of the flames, but his rescuer found to his horror that the skin of Mr Walker's hands 1 peeled off like a pair of gloves. Most of the bodies were horribly mutilated. Relatives from Madras visited the Park by thousands in the morning vainly attempting to recognise the bodies. People set to work to rescue as many as possiblo of the persons j who were lying ia heaps, and succeeded in saving scores, but very many j were suffocated. When the fire swept round to the gateways with awful rapidity, and roasted those who were exposed, on the top of the heaps, the attempts to drag the bodies away were stopped, aud in a short time, when the fire had run its course, the work of rescue was resumed. A more frightful scene cannot be imagined. Many of the bodies were charred beyond recognition, though life still remained in them. The police, soldiers, Europeans, and Eurasian visitors set to work willingly at removing the bodies, and all having life were carried away to the General Hospital. The dead bodies were left on the ground till next day. It appears that a wooden dancing saloon, which had been erected on a grass plot near the band-stand, in the centre of the enclosure, had also caught fire soon after the surrounding booths were in flames, and fchis, probably, tended to make the rush to the two fatal gateways greater than would otherwise have Seen the case. A large body of medical men worked assidiously throughout the night in endeavouring to alleviate the intense sufferings of the patients. Cotton : mattresses at the hospitals, had to be ripped open to supply dressing for wounds, and sheets and clothing wore torn up for bandages. All the clergy of the district, many ladies, and all the doctors assembled at the hospitals before the night was over, and all endeavoured to do what they could to alleviate the sufferings of the victims-