CINEMA FIRE IN ITALY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5245, 29 February 1928, Page 2

CINEMA FIRE IN ITALY.

SHOCKING DISASTER IN VILLAGE.

FORTY BODIES RECOVERED. ROME, February 28. A fire in a. cinema last evening at Moriago, a village near Venice, resulted in a shocking disaster. The number of deaths has not yet been ascertained, but it is believed to be considerable. So far 40' bodies have been recovered. The dead many children. A film was being screened on the first floor of an old granary constructed of wood. There were 300’ spectators. The film caught fire and the operator’s wooden cabin was in a blaze.

The hall was filled with smoke. Men, women, and children rushed to the single wooden staircase, which collapsed- The proprietor, Signer Podesta, vainly tried to calm the - maddened crowd. Owing to the panic and the collapsed stairway many people w ere burned to dteath, asphyxiated, or fatal-ly-crushed.

In the meanwhile there were terrible scenes in he village. Mothers rushed to see if their children were safe but could not approach the burning building. Mbriago has no fire brigade, and when the firemen arrived from Trevisco, the capital of the province, the building had been reduced to a mass of cinders. Signor Podesta and his wife escaped by jumping from a window.