APPALLING. TRAGEDY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 96, 16 January 1908, Page 7

APPALLING. TRAGEDY.

> HOLOCAUST OF CHILDREN. "ACCIDENT, PANIC, AND FIRE AT A THEATRE. DEATHS TOTAL 167. FIRE APPARATUS AGAIN OUT OF ORDER; • BY TELEGIIAPH —PREBS ASSOCIATION—OOPIHIGHT. New York, January 14. A fire caused by an explosion at a cinematograph concert; at Rhodes's Opora Houso, Boycrton, a mining town ill-Pennsyl-vania, killed 80 persons and injured 100. , The explosion caused a panic among the audience, and. 700, chiofly women and Sunday scholars, rushed tho stage, overturning lamps, which set fire to tho scenery. Part of tho floor collapsed, precipitating scores, into tho basement. Within five minutes the theatre was a roaring furnace. Tho staircases were blocked. ' Many of tho audience, mounting piles of bodies five feet high, jumped from the windows. ' The firo apparatus was out of order, and this impeded tho efforts of tho firo fighters. TERRIBLE SCENE. ' OIL-LAMPS AS FOOTLIGHTS. PARENTS SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES. (Reo. Jan. 16, 0.9 a.m.) t New York, January 15. . The majority of tho victims belonged to the most, prominent families of Boyorton. Their children wore participating in a play ontitled '.'Tho Scottish Reformation." Tho Coroner .is of opinion that tho entrance of the theatre was too narrow. Oil-lamps wero used as footlights. ' A child on the stage overturned one of these lamps. { A nunlbor of pooplo bccamo frenzied as the flames on tho stage approached, tfio men beating tho women and children in thoir efforts to' escape. ; . . 1 1 Marty parents, sacrifiood their lives in endeavouring to savo their children. Several rcscuers, dashing l into tho building, did not return.'' ' The number of bodies recovered is 167. This is believed to be the total of those lost. ■ Inquiry .shows that a pipo connection between a calcium light and a hydrogen tank (behind tho atulioiice) slipped off. < ■ Tho escape of gas through tho break in I the connection in ado a hissing sound, caus- | nig a panic. At fust it was thought that tlio tank exploded, causing tho fire, but it now seems that tho tank did not explode .till.the flames reached it, the fire having been started 1 by the upsetting of tho oil lamp.