Fire Toll May Be 400

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31379, 26 May 1967, Page 11

Fire Toll May Be 400

(N.Z. Press Association^—Copyright) BRUSSELS, May 24. About 370 persons were believed to be missing today in the smouldering ruins of the L’lnnovation department store which went up in flames on Monday in central Brussels, a company executive said.

He said that added to varying accounts of bodies already removed from the fire scene, that figure would bring the total of dead and missing persons to about 400. The vice-president of the firm, Mr Pierre Bolle, said 123 of the missing persons were store employees and 247 were shoppers. Later police released a toll of 49 dead and 222 missing after the blaze, which some investigators believed was set off deliberately. All branches of the department store chain took down American flags and halted a special campaign of selling American goods after a threatening telephone call was received at the Liege branch. A spokesman for the store in Liege said an anonymous caller declared: “Isn’t one catastrophe enough? It will happen here unless you withdraw all American flags.”

The store spokesman said the campaign to sell United States goods in L’lnnovation stores was over. It had been scheduled to run to May 26. American goods were also reported being withdrawn from L’lnnovation stores in Antwerp, Ghent and the Brussels suburb of Ixelles. Before the fire, the Brussels store had received threats believed to have been made by pro Chinese Communists. Police are investigating the possibility of arson, investigators said privately. Under Belgian law they cannot comment officially while the investigation is in progress. L’lnnovation stores reported business had fallen off because of fear of more fires.