GREAT FACTORY FIRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2022, 6 March 1907, Page 3

GREAT FACTORY FIRE.

21 PEOPLE BURNT. BERLIN, Jan. 12. A a. very distressing kind which has resulted in the deaths of twenty-one young people, is reported from Geispolsheim, nine miles south of Strasburg. The scene of tlie occurrence was a factory of celluloid articles, said to belong to a London firm. Some forty hands, mostly girls and youths, wero employed in the place, and this morning about) half of them had just assembled round a punching machine ready to begin their work, when, as is supjiosed, a spark from the stove fell into a basket of celluloid refuse and ignited it. The stuff at once burst into what is described as a colossal flame, which seemed to fill the room. Unhappily, the blazing mass barred the way of • the only door, and there was no cliancc of escapo in that direction. The frantic prisoners made desperate efforts to reach a window, but they were beaten back by the lire, which rapidly spread in volume, and were driven into a coiner, whorp tlipv were soon all burnt to death. When the flames were at length extinguished their bodies had been almost completely reduced to ashes, only the skulls and a few of the larger bones I remaining being recognisable as huI man remains. Sixteen of the victims I were girls. j Rhineland is suffering severely, from I strange and terrible accidents. It is just "a week since the railway collapsed near Boppard, and the robnritc I explosion at Annen is still fresh in j everyone’s memory.