CHRISTMAS FATALITIES

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 7

CHRISTMAS FATALITIES

36 BURNT TO DEATH. GREAT BAM BURSTS. TWELVE PEOiPtE DROWNED. LARGE NUMBER INJURED. (By Cable.—Press Association.— Copyright.) NEW YORK, December 26. Two disasters, involving the loss of a large number of lives, have occurred in widely-separated sections of the country. Thirty-six men, women and children were burned to death, while forty others were so seriously injured that few of them are expected to live, in a fire which broke out on Christmas Eve in the schoolhouse (if Hobbswitch, Oklahoma, during a Christmas celebration by the school children and their parents. Extremely cold weather, which has held the country in its grip, had frozen the water supply, making the efforts of the lire-lighters unavailing. Attempts by those in the building to escape from the fiamec blocked the staircases and exits, many being trampled or crushed to death before being burned. Another report states that the building, which was of wood, was filled to 1 capacity when the fire started from a lighted' candle on a Christmas tree. In an instant the structure was burning fiercely, and a panic followed. Twelve persons were drowned at Parkmartown, Virginia, on Christmas Eve, and 28 others are in hospital seriously ill. The emergency dam stemming the Holston River for the purpose of supplying water to the local chemical works suddenly gave way. The waters flooded the town, carrying hundreds of houees away in the torrent. Many residents who were caught unawares were drowned. Others nre suffering from blindness, as the water was polluted with chemicals. — (A. and X.Z. Cable.)