THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ROUEN THEATRE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 626, 21 June 1876, Page 3

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ROUEN THEATRE.

{Home News ) The Theatre of Arts in Rouen has just been destroyed by fire. The opera of “ Hamlet” was about to be played, and the actors had nearly all assembled, when at a quarterpast seven the stage curtain caught fire from a gas-jot behind it. The fire speedily extended to all the frames and scenes, a thick smoke enveloping the entire stage. A train of gunpowder next carried it to the rest of the theatre. The actors, including a large number of soldiers and choristers, were'dressing in their respective rooms when the, alarm was given. The outlets were very insufficient, and a terrible panic arose among the unfortunate people stifled by the smoko or surrounded by the flames. They rushed to the door, but the fire had penetrated underneath the staircase. The only means of escape, therefore, if such it could be called, was to jump out of windows at the height of a. fourth or fifth storey. The people rapidly collected outside perceived hands clinging to the bars of these windows, and mattresses were hastily sought and placed uudqrheath, thus breaking the fall of those wboquraped down. All but one of the singers entrusted with the solos were saved, their,-boxes being on the first floor. Madame Preys, learning that her husband was on an upper storey, could not be dissuaded from going to his help, and she fell among the fllines. M. Guillemot saved many of the female singers, and only succeeded in saving himself by climbing from one of the windows. Chains of men were formed to the Seine, and a steam fire engine was also set to work, the garrison and the civil population doing their utmost ; but the fire burnt on through the night, and it was not mastered till noon the next day. The theatre is totally burnt down, and twelve houses surrounding it have been partially destroyed. The number of victims is not yet precisely known. Of the thirty five soldiers te’onging to the 71th Regiment who were to figure on the scene, the body of one was found, and seven are injured, two of them seriously, while the muster-roll shows four others missing. The leader of the chorus was suffocated by the smoke while clinging to the window, and fell back into the flames. Sixteen victims have been taken to the hospital, four of them expiring almost as soon as they arrived. It is believed that twenty-five persons are either killed or injured. The theatre was built in 1774, and has recently been purchased by the municipality. The damage is estimated at 2,000,000 f. Further particulars have come to hand from Rouen concerning this serious conflagration, which appears to have been more disastrous than was at first expected. The building is close to the Seine, and at the outbreak of the fire the spectators who had been waiting for admission soon formed a chain, under the direction of the police authorities, and passed water to the burning buildings until the few fire engines with which the town is supplied could be brought to bear. Every one deplores the absence of a fire escape, If one could have been employed at the rear of the building in assisting the unfortunate inmates from their lofty dressing rooms there seems no reason why a single life should have been lost, as it h seven people are known to bo dead and thirteen arc lying at the Hotel Dicu and elsewhere more or less dangerously injured. Many are still missing. There are some singular escapes recorded. One soldier, well known as a gymnast, took a flying leap, head foremost, from the fourth floor window, and having managed to alight on his feet with no bones broken, set to work at once at the pumps with a will. Against this escape one may set the fate of the leader of the choir. The poor fellow struggled to an upper window, fell faint, and was burnt alive in sight of the crowd below. Three figures stand out prominently from afnong the rest in the awful confusion within and without the theatre. M. Guillemot was to have sustained the leading baritone character of Hamlet, and to his dressing room flocked many of his brother actors and actresses when the cry of fire was raised. As if born to it, he took the command at once, and guided them one by one through fire and smoke to the stage door till all were in safety, but one ; this was Madame Preys, a lady who sustaining a subordinate part herself, had a husband engaged in some minor capacity about the theatre. She refused to leave it till she had found him. Despite all entreaties and commands, she ran through the burning corridors calling him by name, and persisted in mounting to the upper storeys in search of him, though some force was used to prevent her. At last, when a rt spending voice answered hers and she knew that her husband was in safety, the knowledge came too late. She sank with a yielding floor into the midst of the flames, and her body has not yet beer, recovered. Madame Dallier, a poor dresser about the theatre, was jammed in the corner of a small window, and she was observed to be helping her fellows out to the air and encouraging them to drop. After ten minutes of this, and when all at her window were disposed of, she was observed to grow faint; but she had strength to grasp a rope thrown to her from a neighboring window, and, tying it round her waist, she made the leap. The rope broke, she fell on the abutment of a wall, and was taken up all but dead, and is little likely to recover.