Looters steal from victims of fire disaster

Press, 31 May 1977, Page 8

Looters steal from victims of fire disaster

NZPA-Reuter ( Southgate (Kentucky) Looters have been seen rifling the pockets of rhe victims of the disastrous tire 1 at tlte Beverly Hills Supper ! Club in Southgate. Ken-i tucky, on Saturday night. Choking smoke and a crush of bodies at exits; were blamed yesterday’ for; the tragedy, America’s worst! night-club fire disaster for 1 35 years.

A Fire Department I spokesman said that the toll ' might reach 300, but Governor Julian Carroll said that, (he expected deaths among : the club’s 3500 Saturday night patrons to be less, j At the last count 160 i bodies had been extracted from the charred rubble. The carnage attracted looters who were discovered robbing the bodies of the gamblers and diners laid outside in rows under white sheets. Police said that at least six people were spotted rifling the pockets of the dead? i “The toll may hit 300 . . . (we just don’t know. The (place is a total wreck,” the ! Fire Department spokesman said. “We’ve got to remove a lot of debris, an awful lot, before we are going to arrive at a firm figure for the number of dead,” Officials said that 45! (bodies were found jamming the exits when they entered the club on Sunday "morning. A comedy team was warming up the audience for the star attraction of the cabaret, the singer, John Davidson, when a waiter grabbed the microphone. “There’s a small fire. Everyone stay calm and please exit the building,” he said.

A comedy team, Teeter and McDonald, kept up their act in an effort to reduce panic. One quipped: “We’ve had a lot of people walk out on us before, but this is ridiculous.”

“Suddenly the whole place was engulfed in flames,” one of the patrons said. “It was all black smoke. It all happened so fast. I heard a small explosion, a few rumblings.”

The hundreds of people packed into the main lounge for the cabaret made for the exits as fast as they could. Chairs were pushed over and people clambered on to tables in- their efforts to escape. The crush built up at the doors.

A waiter who got cut said that 200 people managed to clamber on to the roof in a bid to avoid the flames and choking smoke. Later the roof collapsed. The Fire Department Chief [(Mr Dick Risenberg) said that he “looked under the roof and there is body after body after body." When he arrived at the ; scene, he said, “people were gushing out of there by the (hundreds.” His men did not iattempt to combat the fire, but put on breathing apparatus and tried to rescue patrons. Shortly after the alarm was raised, the power failed? plunging the building into darkness except where the fire had really caught hold.

Officials said that most people appeared to have died from inhaling choking clouds of black smoke that! swirled through the dark-! ened rooms, rather than being burned to death.

“There was no delay in calling for help,” an official said. “It was just a very quick-spreading fire.”

The club had been rebuilt after a fire in 1970 which caused damage costing $700,000, but no casualties. The club had no sprinkler system, though the fire exits, •were adequate, fire officials said. Police and firemen were forced to suspend clearing operations because of heavy rain, which turned the garden of the club into a quagmire and sent columns of steam up from the smouldering wreckage.

A 50-tonne derrick and 70 other pieces of heavy rescue equipment will resume the search for bodies today. The worst nightclub fire in the United States was on November 28, 1942, when flames engulfed the Coconut Grove in Boston, killing 491 people.