LONDON HORROR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 4

LONDON HORROR

Bomb Bursts in Basement Used As Shelter STREAM OF BLAZING PETROL LONDON, December 14. Streams of blitzing pelt'ol poured down on shelierei'rs entombed iu a London garage basement when a higbexplosive bomb wrecked (he building in a recent raid. The nightmare scenes were described by a P.ritjbaiie girl. Miss Flora Findlay, who was one of Ihe few to .escape being burned to death 01 crushed under an avalanche of masonry. She cut her feel to ribbons as she rushed to safety it) bare feet over broken glass. ”1 was blown util of my bunk when the bomb fell directly on life building, which was being used as an ao'- 'iary lire station and shelter,” she Said. "The bomb crushed through two stories of reiiiforeed concrete, inslantly killing eight firemen, who were racing off to auoiher lire, and liually bursting in lite basement. Frightful Awakening. ■•Luckily I was in a bunk al the far end, lint Ihu nmjorily of al least. 20 persons lin mediately below the explosion were entombed, (.niters sleeping in stored cars, Ihe roufs of which protected Iheni froni debris, were I rapped when burning petrol poured down on them. They were mainly linmien vyho were sleepitig from exhaiistion afler continual tire-lighting in lite early days of the blitzkrieg. "It was a most frighlful awakening. I was Imrefooted and clad only in a silk nightdress. Flames from the blazing pelrid lit lli-e blackness and the air was full of choking petrol fumes and dnst.. impulse Io Die. "Men ami women were screaming iu agony near the main exit, which lhe Haines blocked. I groped blindly, slnmhlitig over jugged debris, searchitt2 for lhe emergency otllieL and expecting every secolttl that the main pelfol Links would blow up. "For 1-5 minutes, which seemed a century, a tiremau and I sought lhe exit, then lhe liremait vanished, probably knocked si-tiseless by falling bricks, one of wl.-ieh had already injured niy head. Fimilly, I found lhe otiih-l. liit| afler going a few yards discovered llial th)- door lurked. •| was so fr.-iiilically dis.-tppoiilled, exltaiisied ami horrjlied that I almost surrendered to iln- impulse to lie down )|iid die, iml feeling upward 1 found a glass paiii'l. whi<-|i I smashed with a brick. Some Still Buried. "Tlie glass cut my liatnls. iml I clambered through ami hastened barefooted up the stairs ami across the pavement, which was littered with broken glass. When A.R.l’. nieii were taking me to liospilal iwo more bombs burst on tile roadway. "f am eager now to relurn io Australia, because tin escape like mine could not lie repealed. But I do not want to risk being torpedoed." Miss Findlay lias now recovered. The lops of a few of lhe 50 burnedout cars <tre st-ill disl ingnislmlde amid the'tons of wreckage in lite hnsenienl. "1 sheltered dining lhe previous night's bombing in that one." Miss Findlay said, indicating a £l2OO car which was hurm-d out. "Al least sixpeople are still under llial debris."