SHOCKING DISASTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 147, 24 June 1887, Page 6

SHOCKING DISASTER.

TIIU OPERA CORIIQWE BURNED.

Two Hundred lives Lost

The Opera Cotnique, Paris, Was destroyed by fire on May 24th. The fire broke out during the first act of the opera of "Mignon." Ono of the Wings caught fire from a gas get. The entire stage was Immediately enveloped in flames. Ihe tire soon spread to the whole house. Mine. Mergvillier and Mines. Tesquim and Bernard were on the stage when the firo broke out. All the actors ran out in their stage costumes. The gas was turned off before the audience had left the building, and some jumped from the upper windows, being dashed to pieces on the pavement below. The roof soon fell in, sending showers of sparks as far as the Place de la Bourse. . Witli the exception of Mme. belner, who perished, all the actors escaped, though a number were seriously injured, live bodios were terribly burned, and wore conveyed to the National Library, among them the body of a woman, clasping a little baby in her arms. ■ Tho money receipts were saved and deposited in the " Gaulois " Office. Tho hromon showed tho greatest courage. Messrs Goblet and Thibeau were on the spot soon after the fire started, and remained throughout with the fire officials. The Military Club rendered great assistance in the work of preventing the crowding of people around the building. ■ An artificial fire apparatus, which had been placed in position in readiness for the burning of the palace in the second act, rolled down from its place near the roof and exploded below. Women, half clad, and carrying their costumes, fled from the stage screaming. Tho supers and members of the chorus were terrified ; some of the latter fled with nothing on but their tights. The flames spread with great rapidity. In fifteen minutes the stage was a vast furnace. Several actors escaped by climbing the roof on the side of the Rue Merivante, where they were rescued by fireescapes. M, Tasquin implored the audience to remain seated until tho exits were opened, which they did. If they had made a rush for tho doors the loss of life would have been worse. The police outside were unable to restrain the crowd who besieged tho building inquiring for friends, until a military cordon was formed. One man, who wanted to rescu© his brother and sister, raved and tore his hair and menaced with a stick the people who stopped him from rushing into the blazing building. Tho scene outside was one of the wildest excitement. The falling embers struck horses in the surrounding streets, causing them to plunge and rear. The flames shot out of every window, forcing the crowd into the narrow streets, where the crush was terrific.

A figurante says there were 150 persons on the stage when the fire broke out. She heard the glass breaking, but told the others not to mind it. Narratives by Persons Burnt. The streets in the vicinity of the burned theatre wero crowded until an early hour this morning. The doctors attended many persons who had been bruised. Sewell, the solicitor for the British Embassy, said the audience showed great calmness when the alarm was given. Charles A. Duvivier, of New York, who was it the house with his son, says : " Towarda the end of the first acfc we noticed piles -ii burning canvas falling from the Hies, and we concluded to get out. As we were passing along the aisle. Tasquin, who was singing the part of Lothario, besought !the audience to remain seated. His courage was magnificent, but his judgment was faulty, for I reached the foyer amid a mass of flames. Cries could be heard on all sides, and the house began to fill with smoke. I believe I saw nobody descending the stairway leading to the galleries, and everybody in the parterre escaped alive, but I am sure that people were suffocated in the galleries. Only a fortnight ago M. Steinakers called attention in the Chamber of Deputies to the dangerous condition of the Opera Comique, the oldest theatre in Paris. The " Figaro " also called attention to the same thing, after a recent twelve-hour benefit performance. The audience was delayed a few minutes by the dense smoke and insufficient light. The killed included four firemen. There was not a frantic rush in the theatre, but it is believed that the staircase became blocked. The iron curtain was lowered in front of the stage, and this prevented the fire from spreading immediately to the auditorium and allowed the audience to escape. The men who carried away the money chest report that when they left the auditorium it was quite empty. The fire brigade distinguished itself. Many men had narrow escapes. Most of the casualties so far reported were due to nervousness. Many persons who were unable to , trust themselves to walk on the narrow ledge of the cornice around the building jumped off in terror. One woman coolly walked around the cornice when the flames were bursting out above her, until she reach ed a fire escape. The victims were almost all singers. The scenes outside were pitiful. W. J. Ayres, of New York, escaped with his wife and daughter. Ayres says that the whole audience remained quiet for two minutes after the first signs of fire. Suddenly a draught of air carried a sheet of flames downward froir the flies, curling out into the theatre. The dropping fire drove the actors from the stage, and in half a second the theatre was a mass of struggling, howling humanity. Women were being trampled on, and the crowd pushed a party. of Americans forward. At the foot of the stairs there was a curtain. Pushing this aside, a bnrly Frenchman seized Miss Ayres by the shoulder and attempted to twist her round or down so as to get her out of his way. Rutter, one of the Ayres Earty, grabbed the girl just in time to save er from the feet of the crowd. He could not stop the brutal Frenchman, who pushed part unpunished. Out of breath, crushed and exhausted, the whole party finally reached the street uninjured. The Roll of Bead. A Paris despatch of May 26th says: "The loss of life by the fire at the Opera Comique was much greater than at first reported. To-day 156 missing persons have been inquired for by relatives. They are supposed to have perished in the flames. The bottom of the theatre is flooded with water to the depth of five feet. Sixty bodies have been found 'floating in the water by firemen. The remains are principally those of the ballet girls, choristers and machinists. The remains of three men and two women were found in a stage box, Where the victims had taken refuge from the flames." It is ascertained that many bodies are buried in the upper galleries, where escape was exceedingly difficult. The Government proposes to dlose several Paris theatres because of -their deficiency in 'exits. Late this afternoon the bodies of eighteen ladies, allin full dress, were found -lying-to-gether at the bottom'of the staircase leading from the second story. These ladies all had escorts 'to the theatre, butt no remains of the men were found near where the women were burned to death. The walls of the theatre began falling this evening, and search for 'the bodies' had to be abandoned for the day. The library attached to /the 'theatre' was entirely destroyedj with 'all its contents,; inbluding many valuable - - '

Six thousand costumes were burned in the wardrobe. The work of searching for bodies was resumed at night, and a number were exhumed. The official statement says that fifty bodies have already been recovered. Revillion, speaking in the Chamber of Deputies this afternoon, estimated that at least 200 persons lost their lives in the fire. Miraculous Escapes. An artist named Phillippe performed prodigies of valour in saving life. Hβ mounted a ladder three times and saved three danseuses after they had been abandoned by the firemen. In the Rue Favart a sudden gust of wind cleared away the dense smoke, when a woman and two men were seen standing on the angle of the uppermost cornice. The woman tried to jump, but the men prevented her. When all were finally rescued the woman was a raving maniac. A singer had a miraculous escape from his dressing-room in an angle at the top of the building. He says the wind kept the flames off that part of the building, but a river of molten lead poured from the roof, the course of which he diverted with a board to prevent its weight carrying down the shaky floor.