COLLEGE DESTROYED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 20 January 1938, Page 2

COLLEGE DESTROYED

INMATES INCINERATED. DISASTER IN QUEBEC. (United Press Association—-By Electric . Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received January 19, 1.00 p.m. MONTREAL, Jan. 19. A message from St. Hyacinthe. Quebec, states that at least 20 students and teachers are reported to be dead and ton to be injured in a fire which destroyed the Sacred Heart College.

With the total dead not yqi determinable, due to the confusion still existing alter the fire, it is already indicated that possibly 30 are dead. They are chiefly boys. Eight bodies have been recovered and at least 2_ are missing. Panic and death spread among tlie 160 pupils and the 307 Brothers and priests as the blaze destroyed the college, at 2 a.m., when everyone was asleep. Outside, a tremendous frost, 8 degrees below zero, covered everything with iceMany raced to the fire escape, from which they were pushed by the pressure from behind, falling on to the ice and being badly injured. The church bells summoned the townsfolK when a workman discovered the fire and ran to obtain assistance. Hundreds of people hurried to the scene, but were unable to approach near enough to the blazing building to help the trapped pupils. Terror-stricken youngsters ran hysterically in all directions in the fireblocked corridors as the conflagration rapidly enveloped the entire structuie. Twenty were sent to hospital seriously injured, including those who jumped from the fourth storey, the only person who has been identified as dead was Brother Jean Baptiste, aged 64, a teacher, who leapt from the fourth floor. Many boys are being treated tor burn | and broken bones. The other boys injured are in the school hospi la nearby. The escapees, all scantily clad, were taken in by the surrounding householders. The structure was T-shaped, with the dormitories at the top. The fourth storey and the ground floor burned most rapidly, and quickly collapsed, but ten hours after the discovery of the fire, the firemen were still compelled to pour in water since it was still not extinguished-. One journalist declared that for half an hour after the discovery of the fire all the exits were wrapped in flame and not a fireman was able to enter. Those inside had to save themselves as best they could.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.