FIRE AT PENNSYLVANIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 69

FIRE AT PENNSYLVANIA.

ENORMOUS LOSS OF LIFE.

A TERRIBLE SCENE.

AUCKLAND, February 17. Papers by the American mail contain the following graphic account of a fire at Pennsylvania on January 15: — When nightfall put a stop to the work of recovering the dead from the ruins of the Rhodes Opera. House, where the holocaust ocourreo, th» official roll of victims numbered 167. Th& ratio of women and girls to men and boys is about nine to one

The Opera House was on the second floor of a three-storey brick building. Th> entertainment hall was a room about 50ft wide by 75ft .long. There were about 427 persons packed in the room, most of whom were adults. There were about 65 persona on the stage. The entertainment was nearly orer when something went^ wrong with the calcium light apparatus upon the platform, near the front entrance. In front of the curtain serving as footlights was a tin tank which contained ccal and oil and about 10 lights. A performer accidentally turned the tank over. The audience rose en masse and scrambled to get out. ' Many persons fell ever the chairs and were never able to regain their feet. The narrow passage became clogged with a struggling mass of humanity — men, '-women, boys, and girls. They were tangled up in a solid mass that no one from outside was able to disentangle. Someone discovered that there were fireeecapes on each side of the building. Dozens made their exits by these avenues of escape. The whole town was aroused and went to the rescue. All this time the flames were creeping towards the terrified mass of people who were frantically shrieking $nd fighting to get out. The noise was dreadful. A few heard the cries of (hose who had found the fire escapes. .«<»-•-•, >»£. J&* bravest whfl had jrainfid the

fire escapes pulled dozens from the struggling mass and dragged them to the sides of the building. _ Scores of persons on the second floor, seeing the a-wful jam on. the stairway risked their lives by jumping from the windows.

Several were so baidly injured that they died before reaching the hospitals. While the frenzied people were fighting to get down the front steps, the calcium light tank exploded. The fire was thus spread over the entire mass of people. This added to the horror, and was more than the feeble rescuers could stand. To save their own lives they were. forced to flee down the fire escapes.

On the front steps outside the door men pulled frantically to open the way for the wedged-in peo-ole, but not more than half a. dozen were rescued in this manner. When the flames were extinguished a horrible sight met the gaze. The bodies were piled in a solid mass 6ft high on the second floor. So solidly were they wedged that crowbars had to be used to separate , the victims. As each victim was taken" from the pile a tag was attached and the body placed on boards. The body was then covered with a quilt, hundreds of which were furnished by the stores and citizens, and lowered to the street, placed on wagKona and taken to the four morgues. -So rapidly were the bodies removed that waggons were not always on hand.