The Paris Disaster.

Hastings Standard, Issue 346, 12 June 1897, Page 4

The Paris Disaster.

PARTICULARS C 7 THE BAZAAR FIRE. HEAR/-RENDERING SCENES. The R.M.S. Oruba arrived at Albany recently,. and the English papers to hand contain a full account of the great fire in the Paris Bazaar de la Charite, from which the following was telegraphed to Sydney : The bazaar was installed on the ground close to the Palais de l'lndustrie. Baron Mackan had made a princely gift of all the buildings and the decorations of a street in Old Paris, which he had bought from a previous exhibition. The fire commenced just after the Papal Nuncio had blessed the bazaar for the second time. It broke out in the left-hand corner of the bazaar, in a cinematograph o exhibition, and is believed to have been due to the explosion of a lamp, which „et fire to a large Adrianople curtain. The bazaar, which was composed of wood and canvas became a mass of flames in a very few minutes. The public, seeing the flames spreading to the left, hurried towards the right, where the back of the building is against a high wall. There were in all eight exits, of which three were in the front, one on the left, whilst four were at the back. It is easy to understand what happened. Those near the exits escaped, but those at the back, not being aware of the existence of attendants' exits, were caught in the trap, aud the more the flames crept upon them the more they pressed towards the right, where there was no exit. It was on that side that the number of victims was most 2onsiderable. By good fortune, in the high wall of the court of the La Reine Palace is a barred window, and those in the hotel had the presence of mind to break the bars, and thus saved many persons' lives. The scene outside the building was shocking. Crowds of terrified people were seen running away from the bazaar, among them being women in petticoats, and even more lightly clad ; some whose clothes had been burned, and others who had suffered in the struggle. All round were men and women enquiring with feverish anxiety for their relatives. The flames spread so quickly that even before the arrival of the first police assistance or help of any kind the entire structure was blazing. Two steam fire-engines were at work a quarter of an hour after the alarm was given, but the first help was given by cabmen and the grooms from the neighboring livery stables with their water-pipes. In an hour the bazaar was a heap of smoking ruins. Then the work of removing the dead began. Each corpse was carefully wrapped in a shrowd, together with every object capable of assisting in its identification, for the victims were horribly torn and charred. Many of them had lost all semblance of human beings. M. Sabatier, rvho was in the Cinematographe Department, saw the lamp set fire to the drapery. He pointed this out to an officer present, and the two tried to clear the public out of the little room without starting a panic. The flames spread so rapidly, however, that their efforts were utterly useless. Meantime the fire had spread to the canvas roof, and in five minutes had reached the other end of the building, so that those in the bazaar were beneath a vault of fire, from which was falling a constant rain of blazing pitch. This explains how nearly all the victims were burned on the head and feet while frequently the middle of the body was untouched. Despite M. Sabatier's efforts he was swept to the other end of the bazaar, where he was the witness of heartrending scenes. A young lady implored him to save her. The look in her eyes and her appealing gestures would defy forgetfulness. He was unable to help her, in spite of his wish to do so, as two other women were clinging desperately to him, one of them holding him round the neck, and nearly strangling him. Screams were heard on every side. M. Sabatier struggled towards the door, accomplishing the last few yards on his hands and knees, and still dragging the two women, whom he was thus enabled to save. He escaped with nothing worse than many bruises.

Meantime, a couple of hundred persons were cut off from the exits by the flames, and they had collected in an empty space between the bazaar and the high wall at the back. The ends of this empty space were closed by palisades. Had the persons in the bazaar been men instead of women, probably few lives would have been lost, but the dresses caught fire easily, and allowed the flames to spread from one to the other. Moreover, a band of men would probably have been able to smash down the palisades. There 200 prisoners were screaming for help, and seemed beyond hope. It was then that M. Gomery, the chef of the Hotel du Palais, appeared with a sledge-hammer, and smashed three of the bars of the grated window, through which 150 persons were pulled, while about 50 others escaped over a wall upwards of 30ft. high by ladders placed there by the staff of the journal La Croix. The scene, as described by the hotel people, was terrible. A crowd of terrified women stood wringing their hands and weeping, or ran distractedly up and down, while the window bars were being broken. Every now and then they were enveloped by flames. Sometimes exit meant salvation, and sometimes the victims fell writhing on the ground to rise no more. When the bars were smashed two chairs were handed out, and a couple of Sisters of Mercy, w r ith splendid devotion, took the women one by one, and helped them to within reach of M. Gomery, who then pulled them up, and passed them to the staff of the hotel, who drenched those whose clothes were on fire, and attended to jheir injuries. In many instances

great personal courage was displayed by the rescuers. The official figures of the dead are 111, and there are, in addition, 92 pieces of bodies. Dramatic scenes took place at the identification of the dead, which was in neaily every case arrived at by means of articles of jewellery. Thus Baronne De Carne de Saint Marten was identified by her bracelets, every stitch of clothing having disappeared although her body was not burned. The Duchess D'Uzes had a very narrow escape, her stall being at the back of the bazaar. The Countesse Greft'ulhe and her daughter, the Marquise De Leygues, owe their lives to the heroism of their footman, who helped them over a wall.