INTENSE FOG

Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1930, Page 6

INTENSE FOG

KILLS MANY BELGIANS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—'Copyright.) ANTWERP, December 5. Mysterious deaths occuring in tlie densely fog-enwrapped Meuse Valley, are attributed to asphyxiation from 'fog. Fourteen deaths occurred at Engise in the past twenty-four hours, follow-, ing three days’ fog. A health committee has been sent to investigate. Thirty-four deaths apparently from the same cause are reported in the Liege district. Many were taken to the hospital. A number of cattle died. I armors are driving animals into kitchens to escape the fog. VILLAGERS’ RELIEF. VAPOURS' DUE. TO GERMAN AMMUNITION. BRUSSELS, December 5. A message* from Liege states that the villagers are horror-stricken at an increasing number of deaths, due to the invasion of an apparently poisonpup gas, this recalling the fact that the Germans stored vast quantities of ammunitions in the Liege district. The villagers are declaring that the vapours are arising 'therefrom. The Health authorities are non-com-mittal pending the result of the postmortems. .Many sufferers were gasping and in the last extremity when taken to the: hospital.. The scenes were ones recalling the gas attacks in war time. The afflicted district is one of the healthiest in Belgium. Most of the victims are men and women in the prime of life. The mortality among the cattle and sheep is heavy. SIXTEEN MORE DEATHS. BRUSSELS, December 6. Sixteen more people have died in the villages of Away and Ampsih. The d,eath roll due to the mysterious fog is. now sixty-four. .• / / 7, Eye witnesses .say that this fog docs not seem to he a 1 mere, winter freak, imt it lies about in, streaks. At one moment a person imiy. Ufe walking in ordinary daylight, and .then suddenly piay be up against a dense fog wall, in. ,which phantom like shapes are discernible.,, , . Chi entering the fog, breathing is difficult. The atmosphere is pungent and clammy. The phenomenon is utterly unknown and the district doctors are completely . puzzled, especially by the deaths, which apparently are due to congestion.-.

All' the)medicaU men in the neighbourhood are meeting to-morrow to investigate the. mystery.

.One theory is that the air is impregnated by some chemical dust and had united .with the unusual moisture, thus forming a toxic gas.

FORTY IN DANGEROUS STATE. BRUSSELS, December 6. , Forty persons are still dangerously ill, hut the panic is subsiding with the disappearance of the fog from the death zone. No, doctors are now available for ordinary cases of illness. The chemists’ staffs have been unable to cope with the rush of work. ENGLISH CATTLE DIE. THROUGH FOG EFFECTS. LONDON, December 7. A number of cattle have just died from an unknown disease on the farm of Mr, J. Hodgson, at Grosmount, in Yorkshire, England. Their disease is believed to be due to germs floating in the air. This farm has been isolated by the fog. YELLOW. RAIN AT. PARIS. LONDON, December 7. Last week yellow rain fell in Paris. SPAIN’S VARIATION. SNOW REDDENED BY RAIN. MADRID, December 6. The whole countryside at Salinas, near Huelva, was painted a vivid red by tinted rain, which fell there during a thunderstorm. YELLOW COLOUR. OF FOG. LONDON, December 6. Among the lay theories for the visitation in the Valley of the Meuse is one in regard to the yellowness of the fog, which, it is considered has been due to the same cause as the yellowness of the ram that fell in Paris last week, namely, that this was not dust from the Sahara Desert, but that it was all aerial fungoid growth that is possibly deleterious to life. A chemical analysis showed that yellow snow which fell at St. Moritz in the middle of the ’nineties was due to the presence of minute fungoids. ' BELGIAN DOCTORS’ VIEW. DENSITY OF FOG SOLE CAUSE. BRUSSELS, December 6. The Belgian Health Minister states that the doctors believe that the deaths in the Meuse Valley are due to the intensely cold, wet fog, and not to poison gas. The Minister has ordered a strict inquiry.

LONDON, December 6/ The Chairman, of Leige Health Com-, mission states that an official inquiry, which has not yet concluded, shows.' that the Meuse Valley fatalities were solely due to .the exceptional density of the fog. One doctor declares that gas from the factories was not responsible for the mortality.' Other practitioners consider that the deaths were due to the natural result of the sudden / chilling of the atmosphere, combined with the unusually thick fog affecting people who already were suffering from respiratory diseases, since either the heart or tlfe lungs have been involved in all of the cases. ■ The autopsies will probably solve the problem. ENGLISH DOCTORS MYSTIFIED. LONDON, December 6. ■< Regarding the fog deaths in Belgium, Professor J. B. S. Haldane, says he is of the opinion that the deaths are apparently due to an epidemic, something resembling the “Black Death,” which spread over Europe centuries ago. He does not think they were due to war gas, as they occurred in different villages where floods have recently been experienced on November 23rd, and he considers that possibly there is some connection therewith. ' LONDON, - December 6.' ‘ The British- doctors are: mystified by the’reports 'of the poisonous. Belgian ■'fogy ' ” .. An official of the Tropical Diseases Hospital, referring to Professor HaldaneV “black death”' suggestion, expresses the’ opinion that he probably did: not rneaif the mediaeval bubonic .plague but the devastating influenza epidemic of a few years ago, which had been also called “the black .death,” owing to its calamitous etfects in Britain and on the Continent. The official said that the deaths in the Meuse Valley might he a devastating form of the influenza, which disease had many variations that hitherto have not been fully understood. The local conditions in the Meuse Valley have created a new and hitherto unknown type of the disease.

FURTHER DEATH. THE FOG LIFTING. BRUSSELS, December 6. : Another death occurred to-day, but the' mysterious mist of death, which has hung over the countryside in pungent yellow patches for three days, has apparently begun to lift. It has caused a reign Of terror that has been unequalled since the war, and which is now somewhat abating. The doctors are still very busy in the stricken districts attending to hundreds of patients, who are suffering from burning pains in tlieir lungs and throat.' : • Cattle have been asphyxiated besides humans, and hundreds:, of carcases are lying in the fields. A Sanitary Commission has already begun . enquiries. ' -' The wool sales have been postponed owing to fog. SANTA CLAUS TRAGEDY. FIVE CHILDREN SUFFOCATED. i 'BRUSSELS, December 6. On the eve ' of Saint Nicholas’ (Santa! Claus) Day, which is celebrated like Christmas in some parts of Belgium, Madame Tlierey, who is living with her uncle, put to bed five children, their ages ranging from seven months to six years. She then lit a gas heater in order to warm the room, and later on she returned to the room to fill the children’s Christmas stockings, but she found that the heater was extinguished and the room was filled with gas, while all of the children ' were suffocated. She was admitted to-' the . hospital distraught, after vain efforts to revive them. i LONDON, December 6. • >Op Thursday,. yesterday, and to-day, A vast'fog has stretched across NorthWestern Europe, holding up traffic and causing deaths'in some places., /Up to, yesterday the Thames shipping had been stopped for. forty hours, •' while passenger and cargo steamers, unable to proceed'up the river,,' clustered in anchored groups at the Thames.mouth, bleating sirens:, and--.ringing bells. This delay continued to-day. The Australian liner Orvieto, was compelled to anchor off Thames Haven, early yesterday, owing, to fog, and is. still an-, ohored there after fifty hours. A report to Paris from Amiens states that dense ifog impeded the Australian Prime Minister, .Mr Scullin’s tour of the battlefields. He visited Poiziers Cemetery and placed a wreath in honour of the British troops, thence visited Albert, and placed a wreath on the French memorial. The cross-channel steamer Flamand, sent a wireless message that she was short of water, ami asked that some be sent promptly. A water boat was unable to'find her.

GREAT FLEET BLOCKED IN THE THAMES. r .Q ‘*l r _ FOG REACHES TO BERLIN. LONDON, December fi. Although the fog in Britian was lifting this (Saturday) evening there is fifty miles of shipping in the River Thames still held up. Two hundred vessels, including the “lonic,’? which is sailing for New Zealand) are, at a standstill between London ! and the Nore. Four cross-Channel vessels are unable to enter Dover, although they have ccgnpleted their voyage to schedule

time. The is holding up four hundred passengers. Four big liners are waiting outside Southampton. The fog has interfered with both the road and air traffic. The cross-Channel vessels are landing at Lympne their passengers, who are going to London by train. ■ A captive balloon was sent up at Kew, and it recorded the fog belt as being one thousand feet thick. The fog extends in huge patches as far as Berlin. 400 SHIPS AT STANDSTILL. THE THAMES CONGESTION. LONDON, December 7. Since Thursday the fog lias blanketed the River Thames and the movements of vessels of all types have been greatly hampered. There was a temporary thinning of the fog this morning, which induced the shipmasters of the smaller craft to get under way. The fog, however, later thickened, causing minor collisions, amid the hooting of sirens, the clanging of bells and the shouts of the blindfold mariners. Eventually activity was partly resumed in the, Thames Estuary, but the congestion still remains unpredecentecL There are four hundred vessels still stationary, including' the liner Orvieto, which'should have docked and the liner Ormond. which does not start till Sunday. ' '.The .steamer “Freya” collided with .tlie. “lonic,'wlficli. is anchored at North Fleet Hope, and the Freya tore out a plate above her own water line, necessitating her'docking. The lonic’s damage lias not been ascertained. Motor boats have been profitably engaged in supplying food to the stationary vessels. The fog spoilt many football matches to-day. The spectators at Highbury were vainly indicating the goal by lighting newspapers like flares, but the match had to lie postponed after it had been partly played. There have been several road accidents. A plate-layer was killed when laying fog signals on a ralway line. There have been also many accidents in Paris. ORVIETO REMAINS FOG BOUND LONDON, December 6. The liner Orvieto is still anchored in the Thames Haven, owing to the fog continuing. ,Many relatives have now waited for two days to, meet her. The passengers are putting up at hotels at Tilbury. ... *" -•• .vir “fapgaftv v r . ■ v • BUSINESS INTERRUPTED. LONDON, December 0. The wool sales ' have been postponed owing to'the fog.-