CINEMA DISASTER

Hokitika Guardian, 2 January 1930, Page 6

CINEMA DISASTER

■ OVER SEVENTY CHILDREN SUFFOCATED United Press Association—By Electric - Telegraph—Copyrightj. LONDON, Dec. 21. There has been a shocking .cinema lire at Paisley (Scotland). Eighty persons have already been certified a.s dead, as the result of it, including many children. The casualty list is still growing. Two hundred have been sent to the hospitals. The cinema was crowded with children, when smoke was seen pouring’out of the windows. The Eire Brigade ran up ladders. There was a wild scramble for the doors. The firemen pulled out children from the doors and the windows. Children within were overcome and suffocated by the fumes, and many of them were trampled down. The building was surrounded by frantic parents, and there was a huge crowd, as'the theathre is in the centre of the city. All traffic had to be stopped. Heartrending scenes were enacted in the infirmary, where distracted mothers went for the identification of the bodies, which is slowly proceeding. It was a special children’s Hogmanay performance at the Glen Cinema, in the heart of Paisley. The performance was crowded out by fifteen hundred children, whose ages ranged from infancy to fourteen years. The children, on seeing the hall fill with smoko, 'but not knowing the cause of this, yet feared the worst. They tried to escape by trying to reach the exit facing them at the rear of the building. Beyond this exit there was a flight of eight steps, and it only needed one or two to lose their footing, and the result was the worst tragedy that the country has ever known. There was a secondary tragedy awaiting the children filling the balcony. Again somebody lost his or her foothold, and those behind came tumbling down until they were piled six to eight deep. Thereafter it was a sombre story of slow asphyxiation, for nobody lost his or her life through burning. The building itself was not Ignited, but the children were not to know that. The operator had shown one film, which he removed and placed in the container. He heard a hissing sound, and saw smoke. He picked up tincontainer, hoping to get it outside the building, but lie only reached the vestibule, shouting for the manager. The latter took the box and cast it through a side door to a vacant allotment In that short space of time the children saw the smoke and when the manager returned to the auditorium, all was pandemonium. Already the children were heaped breast-high beyond.the door leading to the exit. The manager opened another door on tlie other side of the building, but thsmoke terrified the children, and they refused for a long time to be led thither.

The firemen who arrived inside two mi nutes, * were welcomed as 'old friends. They did much to restore confidence, but the first effect was a further stampede for the other door. A policeman was among the first to see the smoke coming through an upstairs window, and he got there in time to meet a. tumbling cascade of child ren. .

A civilian, who also was passing, heard the policeman shout, “For God’s sake, come and help!” Together they tried to disentangle the heaped-np mites, and passed, them out singly as they were extricated. The policeman gave.his baton to the civilian, telling him to break the windows and let in rescuers. :

Ladders were brought and other rescuers climbed to the upper storey windows, and thus reached the balcony, and dropped down to the ground floor, where they found the children in heaps at the botton) of the stairs. Other children were lying still under the seats. Many must have been dead even then, because the fumes choked the rescuers.

A general summons was circulated for medical and iursing services. The police stopped cars, lorries and tramcars and turned out the passengers, placing in the children, both alive and dead, and took them to the hospital where the nurses were entertaining the patients at special Hogmanay tea festivities, which were rudely broken off as the stream of victims began to arrive. i Some of the nurses appalled at the magnitude of the disaster, were overcome and fainted. Those already dead were taken to the basement, to make room for the living. One doctor, living close to the cinema, organised a first-aid station in factory yards. Thither some scores were at first taken. The doctor called for women volunteers, and he hurriedly instructed them in artificial respiration. The official death roll this evening is 72, all due to asphyxiation. -Thirty-seven cases .remain in the hospital, mostly suffering from shock. GAS- CAUSER MOST DEATHS SCENE OF STARK HORROR LONDON, Jan. 1. In connection with the cinema tragedy, a revised list of casualties gives 69 children dead and 37 injured. A grim coincidence was that-the film showing when the disaster occurred was entitled “The Crowd.” . Seven doctors confirm the growing impression that most of the deaths were

due to gas poisoning. The chief officer of the Fire Brigade reports that many gas brackets were broken, apparently by children trying to climb over each oilier. They clung to the brackets.

The exceptional crowd of children was due to the fact that the performance was a special New Year treat, two children being admitted lor three-half-pence. Distressing details are being accumulated hourly. One baby of 18 months was found lying on a pile. Some women and mothers were so hysterical that they identified bodies which had previously been identified by other parents.

Another fireman says the children who were alive seemed mad with terror. One boy was jammed in a corner and hemmed in by bodies. He was not looking at the dead children, but upwards all the time, whimpering and wringing his hands, as though trying to ward off some horror.

Fortunately, apart from the stark tragedy, there are many stories of heroism. One young man alone rescued eighteen.

further DETAILS. (Received this day at 9.25 a.m.) LONDON. January 1. The Nation is shocked by the Paisley Cinema Disaster, which was apparently caused when someone shouted “Fire.” Gas brackets were broken in the children’s wild scramble. Many rescuers declare emphatically that the hall was thick with coal gas fumes and smoke. Many dead were black in the face. It is revealed also that a few died of injuries. The extensive scratching of knees and faces during the panic showed the acute hysteria. Three children of one family perished. Had the children remained calm and made an orderly use of the various exits, the tragedy would have been averted, for the building was totally undamaged by fire. Quite a number of children were trampled to death. Fire-master Wilson, in a statement, says “children were everywhere. Some, were behind the screen, some in , the orchestra pit. The stairways were a ghastly sight, about ten feet wide they were crowded with children huddled in every conceivable position and packed as tightly as a wall of cement. The bodies of some were twisted and others were just moaning.” A relief fund has been opened, subscriptions already totalling ‘£l,ooo. MOURNING THE DISASTER. (Received this day at 9.40 a.m.) LONDON,- January 1. Paisley to-day -is in mourning. Social events and New Years’ celebrations have been cancelled. Men and women are going about their duties with grave faces and children are talking in hushed ~ voices. There were tragic scenes outside the Mortuary where hundreds of men and women parents of the dead children waited for hours in pouring rain. Some, were so poorly clad that they used newspapers td keep off the rain. At the iinfirmairy doctors' and nursing staff worked throughout the night tending the little ones; many of whom are suffering: from shock. Their efforts are likely to be successful for of thirty-seven patients it is hoped twelve will be- able to go borne tonight. The Prime Minister sent a message to /the Provost of Paisley expressing .the jC-ountry’s' sorrow at the tragedy.