BIOSCOPE SHOW DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 13 May 1911, Page 9

BIOSCOPE SHOW DISASTER.

ninety uvks u)st. distkessino scenes in m.'ssian TOWN. Utcnt English papers contain additionill particulars of tlic terrible disaster on Sunday, March .ith, at Bologoe, a town in the'neighborhood, of Nikolai railway, when a cinematograph show took tin'.

ISologoe i.s situated lialf way between St. I'l'iersbiirg and Moscow, at the junction of the Rybinsk railway. Tins township is in the government of Novgorod. and its inhabitants consist chielly of railway employees and their families and some small tradesmen. The cinematograph show wa.s held in a wooden building near the station, the clubhouse, of the local volunteer lire brigade. Many of the slides depicted scenes from the liberation of the serfs, which arc. prohibited in most parts of linssia. Not. only the local workmen were present, bin many peasant families from the surrounding villages, who came, in-in sleighs provided with liells bedecked with paper lanterns givt flowers. It was the last d.i',y. ?)( the Onvnival preceding the, llii-slan Kent, and therefore an occasion for -real, festivities apart from the special celebration of the jubilee of the libera,tion of the serfs. • • -** is& THE SPECTATORS THAWED.

The room in which the show was held was one of considerable size, occupying half of the one-storey building. Of the three entries, two were closed on Sunday evening for the purposes of control, while the third was barred oft so that only one person should be admitted at a time. Before the entertainment began the windows were kirred. Consequently the spectators in their panic did not discover any passible menus of escape. An explosion occurred, whether of benzine or gas is not known, and within a few seconds the building was a mass of Names. Between 20 and 30 persons, mostly men, retaining their presence of mind, succeeded in escaping through Ike, narrow passage, but the others, including all the children, lost their live* in the furnace. An alarm was raised, in the township, but the tire engines were long in arriving. A small party of brave townsmen dashed into the building in a desperate attempt to save their wives and children, hut nearly all perished. The endeavors of the firemen, too, were fruitless, and the building was burned out. When the flames were extinguished there was nothing left but a heap of ruins, charred beams, boards and corpses. It was midnight before it was possible to extricate the bodies, many of which were but unrecognisable fragments. By candle light the peasants lifted the human debris on to sleighs and conveyed them to the railway hospital and mortuary chapel. The victims included the owners of the cinematograph and their employees.

A TRAGIC COINCIDENCE. ' The fact that so few (ware saved was due in great measure to a tragic coincidence. The last film shown represented the collision of two trains. The showman had previously told the audience that there would be appropriate sounds, and jokingly assurefl them lhat they need not be alarmed. When the explosiou occurred the majority of the spectators assumed that it was part of the entertainment, and even the cries of "fire" were received with laughter until the flames were lapping the hall. One of the railway officials lost his wife and five children. '