FRIGHTFUL EXPLOSION AT BIRMINGHAM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 29, 29 August 1868, Page 5

FRIGHTFUL EXPLOSION AT BIRMINGHAM.

FOUR GIRLS BURNED TO DEATH

An accident ol a most frightful description took place on Friday morning, at a fog signal manufactory, within a couple of hundred yards of Saltley Training College. It is simply impossible to convey by words, written or spoken, the full horror of the details, as they presented on the spot and at the General Hospital a few hours after the occurrence. Mr. Lilly has for, nearly twelve months kept a fog signal manufactory at Saltley — conducted according to the strictest legal rules, to prevent accidents. About a quarter ps^s-fe ten. o'clock Mr. Lilly was standing in a shed, looking at the storm. Glancing towards shed No. 2, in which the finishing and varnishing are dune, he states that he saw lightning playing along the hedge beside the shed, and, to use his own expression, the shed was lighted up with a lurid glare. He was too much astonished •to say whether he heard thunder or not. Before his horror had time to find expression by word or motion, flames burst out through the roof, and the fog signals inside began to explode, not all at once, but in volleys, keeping up for some time a continuous f usilade : there were 300 gross of fog signals ; a number which will represent 43,200 single exploI siona. Mr. Lilly's fear and astonishment knew no bounds, for he was aware that inside the shed there were half a dozen jjirls, scarcely any of them old enough to be called young \v,omen. He ran franti-' cally toward" the shed, but it is said that some men who were near the spot were able to reach him in time to stop him in a career which must, in all probability, have led to destruction. In a moment of so much agonising agitation, it seems that it was not possible to retain a knowledge of the precise way- in which things were done ; but at all events, four of the girls were got out of the shed, all dangerously burned, .and presenting a heart-rending appearance. The arms, legs, and breast were burned, and one, in making an agonised attempt to tear her clothes off, tore her flesh around the waist. Conveyances were ncifc easily provided in the emeigency, and some delay consequently occurred before the sufferers could he taken to the hospital. Meanwhile the most tragio part of the occurrence was enacting. The shed was burning : for a considerable time the fog signals were exploding in volleys ; and the scene wa3 one of terror^ excitement and confusion. Those who had in their minds the dreadful situation, o* the two girls remaining inside the horrid-shed, had of course no ears foi* the thunder, no eye for the lightning, no feeling for the rain, which still poured in torrents, nor apprehension of danger from the fog-signal cases, winch, shattered by explosion, fell araund them in showeis almost as thickly as the rain itself. The tire w.is not extinguished till nearly half pusfc twelve ; the she. l was then almost consumed, .-i search among the ashes of the burnt wood, saturated- with water^ revealed the bodies of fcw<> girls, in a quite sickening state. They WDre found lying on their faces. They bore less reseinblauce to human bodies than to pieces of charred wood. The girls killed were Fanny Riddle, eleven years of age ; and Lizzie Reynolds, twenty-three years old. Lizzie Reynolds was to have been married in a week. The young man to • whom she was engaged saw her corpse at the public house on Sunday — a spectacle shocking to a stranger, heart-rending to v friend. The parents of Reynolds and of Riddle saw the same painful sLjht. Two others of the children injured by the explosion have succumbed to their injuries. These make four deaths already, and the two other girls injured are not expected to survive.