Celluloid Factory Horror.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 109, 12 May 1904, Page 3

Celluloid Factory Horror.

FOURTEEN GIRLS PERISH IN A RUSH OF FEARFUL FIRE. WILD SCENES AND HEROIC RESCUE. PARIS, Feb. 20. A terrible and fatal fire occurred in a house at' the comer of the Boulevard Sebastopol an-d Rue Etienne Marcel. The building was occupied by a comb manufacturer, M. Lauretto.who is at present in London on business, and the conflagration owed its origin to tiie explosive ignition of a mass of molten celluloid in a room on the fourth floor. The work-girls were at their lunch on the floors above at the time of the outbreak, and so rapidly dill the death-dealing fumes and smoke from the blazing celluloid fill the rooms that several af the girls fell insensible from the seats without -being able to make an effort to escape. Others were less affected, and were able to seek safety in flight, but so fierce was the blaze on the fourth storey within a few seconds of the outburst, that all chance of escape down the stairs was cut off. In a frenzy of terror some of the girls rushed to the windows,smashed the glass, and tried to lower themselves on to the roof of the balcony, which ran round the storey below. A TREACHEROUS LURE. The roof had a steep slope, and a great crowd which had gathered in the street below was horrified to see the unfortunate girls slide down the roof, helpless to stay themselves from crashing to the pavement. With cries of agony and fear they plunged down through the smoke and flames, and were dashed on to the kerbstones fifty feet below. The first to fall were killed outright, while those who followed were frightfully injured, but escaped instant death through falling on the mangled bodies of their fellows. SCENES OF MAD TERROR. Meanwhile the flames were gaining a hold of the upper stories of tire building, and the girls who had fled up to the top in the hopes of getting out on to the roof, were seen crowding the windows, and madly screaming for help. At one of the topmost windows the caretaker and bis wife, the latter holding a newly-born baby in her arms, appeared. Already sturdy efforts had been made by the police and civilians to fight a way up to the girls, and seeing the spectacle at the top windows, a private soldier in the spectators with two gendarmes, rushed into a neighbouring house and soon reappeared on the roof. The gendarmes tied a rope round the soldier's waist, and lowered him over the parapet until -he was able to reach the window, where he took first the baby, then the mother, and finally the father to the safety of the roof, amid deafening shouts of applause from the crowd below. RECOVERY OF THE BODIES. By this time fire engines, ladders, and escapes had arrived, and by these means the majority of the girls who were still at the upper windows were rescued. The fire, however, still raged, and for hours the firemen were unable to cope with it. When at last they had it under control, several of them had sustained severe- injuries. As soon as it was possible to enter the ruins, search parties went in. Bodies of girls, many burned to cinders, were discovered among the debris, and up to the moment of telegraphing fourteen corpses have been brought out. Many more are feared to have perished, and a great number of work-people are more or less seriously injured.—Dalziel.