AWFUL CALAMITY IN A CIRCUS

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1008, 12 March 1883, Page 4

AWFUL CALAMITY IN A CIRCUS

NEARLY 300 LIVES LOST —HEARTRENDING SCENES. While a performance was being given on the 13th inst. at a circus at Berditschefif (a commercial town of Russian Poland, Government of Keiff), a fire broke ont. Before the spectators could escape, the whole building was inflames, and nearly 300 persons perished. Berditscheff has a resident population of about 50,000, but this number is largely increased on the occasion of the quarterly fairs, when the city is visited by dealers from a long distance. The resident population is largely composed of Jews, and pilgrimages are also made to the church of a large Carmelite convent in the town from all parts of Russia. Berditscheff is about 20 miles south of Jitorair, which is about 60 miles from Keiff, The, Costali Circus Company arrived at the town about a fortnight ago, and had been giving performances in a temporary wooden circus, situated about a mile from the town, in an open meadow and built to contain 600 persons. Saturday night was the benefit of Mdlle. Liosset, a favourite equestrienne, and the building was densely crowded. The performance had reached the fifth item in the programme, some clowns being in the ring, when another clown in acting costume rushed in, shouting “fire." At first the people thought this was part of the performance, and laughed; hut,immediately afterwards the ringmaster rushed in and gave the alarm. The scone of horror that ensued was indescribable. The audience were so closely packed that motion was almost impossible. Some in despair flung themselves from the galleries, and parents, unable to save themselves, made a desperate attempt to save their children by throwing them down into the ring. Some of the men, wearing the long coats of the Russian Jews, were entangled on spikes, and remained hanging in the air, while the whole building resounded with heart-rending cries. In the ring, where the clowns had been performing, there was a carpet, and for a little while the children were safe In the centre of this ; but when the grown-up people in their depair began jumping from the dress circle and galleries, the whole ring became one inextricable mass in wbicb the children were trampled to death or suffocated before the flames reached them. But even this was not the worst. The horses soon became unmanageable, and about a dozen of them, driven mad with pain and terror, broke into the ring, trampling to death the people huddled together there. All this occurred in less time than it takes to describe, and in 20 minutes all was over—at least half the people who had been in the bnilding being burnt to death or suffocated. At" the windows and various exits scenes of the most horrible description were enacted, some of the strongest in their efforts to extricate themselves from the straggling mass, forcing others weaker than themselves back into the flames. The fire brigade was utterly inefficient. One engine, coming from Berditscheff, was driven over the ice, which gave way, and 40 men were engaged for some time in extricating it. The hard frost, moreover, rendered it impossible to get a good supply of water. A large proportion of the audience were strangers who had come to attend the great annual hide and leather fair, Berditscheff being an important place in the grain, leather, and cattle trade. The head of the Bourse Committee and the Colonel of the Police are amongst the victims. The scenes in the streets of the town are described as heartrending in the extreme. The people were running about lamenting and weeping as if distracted, the Jews, according to custom, tearing their hair and rending their clothing. Two grooms, it is said, were lying on the straw in a stable adjoining the main bnilding, smoking cigarettes. A spark set fire to the straw, and while one of the men endeavoured to trample out the flames, the other ran for water. The opening of the door created a strong draught, and the fire at once became uncontrollable. The two grooms, it is said, perished, as did also two .English clowns named respectively Allowis (?) and Weston. Out of 31 horses only four were saved, and 12 trained dogs were also burned. On Monday, a Jew named Moses Bercsowao, whose wife and three daughters were killed in the circus, attacked in the open street M. Korosi--1 off, the chief of the Merchants’ Guild, and after severely wounding him with a knife, attempted to commit suicide by cutting his own throat. It is stated that Korosiloff in effecting his own escape had pushed back Bercsowac’s wife, into the flames. Four women who had lost their husbands went mad in the confusion and horror of the night. It is stated that had it not been for the panic and the insufficiency of the exits, most of the audience might have been saved. Another account is to the effect that the fire was caused by a lamplighter upsetting a lighted lamp in the stable, the flames communicating with a barrel of petroleum. The whole bnilding appeared to be in a blaze instantly, the fire running from the stable to the other portion with alarming rapidity. The military were called to the spot directly the lamentable catastrophe was announced, and they kept back the excited crowd that flocked to the circus in search of friends or relatives who were known to have attended the performance. On Sunday an attempt was made to recover the bodies of those who had perished.

The terrible sights which have been revealed are sickening in their horror. At the main entrance to the circus lay the burnt and blackened bodies of a heap of victims, their, heads fairly outside the door, while . their bodies were held ks though in a vice by those who crushed upon them from behind. Further inside the ruins many of the bodies were burnt lo a cinder; others that had been crushed down early in the struggle, and were buried beneath a mass of human beings, preserved sufficient of the features to afford easy means of indenlification, but in nearly all cases the aspect of the victims was fearful to look upon. As each body was taken from the ruin it was placed in a temporary mortuary, there to await the recognition of friends. Here again the scenes were such as to fairly bafflle description, the dreadful appearance of some of the bodies causing relatives the most, aente suffering. The total loss of life has been ascertained to be 268. Sixty bodies have been literally burnt to a cinder, and are past all hopes of recognition. The circus was not insured, and the damage, excluding the value of the horses burnt, is estimated at 24,000 roubles. Those bodies which it was impossible lo identify have been interred in the cemetery belonging to the Orthodox National Church. It was a very painful and impressive ceremony.