BURIED ALIVE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 11 February 1913, Page 3

BURIED ALIVE.

SANTA GLAUS TRAGEDY. DEATH OF POUR CHILDREN. Swift tragedy overwhelmed a happy family at Dundee on Christmas Eve (States the 'Daily Mail' on December 26). Just after their mother had filled their stockings with Christmas presents, four children were killed by the falling of a wall upon their home." The mother was extricated with difficulty from the wreckage. The victims were Betsy Low, aged eight years; George, Low, five Henrietta Low, three; and William Low, 18 months. A fire had occurred earlier in the day in the jute warehouse of Messrs Scott, Sons and Co., in Smellie's Lane Dundee. By evening all possibility of the outbreak extending, had disappeared, but the great pressure on the building, due to the swelling of the smouldering wet jute, was the cause of anxiety. At 9 p.m. a fire-proof wall which separated the jute warehouse from an empty warehouse on the south side burst from end to end. The masonry was hurled with great force outwards, and the roof of the empty warehouse and the south wall was thrown on to a dwelling-house and stables in a carting contractor's yard. George Low, a carter, ran out shotting, "my wife and four bairns are in the house." The door of Low's house was burst open and Mrs Low was found pinned down by fallen masonry. Heroic efforts were made to release the woman, firemen and police risking their lives to clear away the obstructions. After 40 minutes' work Mrs Low was released. Only after two hours' work were the bodies wotwo of the children found. Those of the other two were discovered later. The Children's Stockings. I put the bairns to lied early last night," said the mother, "because I tnld them Santa Claus might call on them, and if they were not in bed he might pass them bv. . The little ones were very happy, all wondering what Father Christmas was to bring them. After undressnig them I pinned their stockings to the mantelpiece in the Kitchen. "The children went laughing up the stairs, and after they had gone to bed T got out the toys which 'we had bought and filled their stockings. I was standing at the kitchen door and my little Willie was coming towards me when the crash came, and I was struck down. I ti'ied to rise, but I rould not move. I did not care for myself, it was my bairns—-T wanted to get to them, but I was helpless."

The children's bodies were not bruised in any way. Their death was due to suffocation.