THE PARIS BAZAAR FIRE.

Evening Star, Issue 10340, 14 June 1897, Page 1

THE PARIS BAZAAR FIRE.

A BURNING DEATH TRAP. SCENES OF SPLENDID HEROISM. English papers by the mail reaching Albany on the 3rd mat. contain full and graphic details of the great fiie in the Paris ;l .Bazaar de la Charity. The bazair was installed on the grounds close to the Palais de la Industrie. Baron Mackan had made a princely gift of all the buildings and the decorations of a street in Old Paris, which he had bought from a previous exhibition. The fire commenced just after the Papal Nuncio had blessed the bazaar for the second time. It broke! out in the left-hand corner of the bazaar, in a cinematograph© exhibition, and is believed to have been due to the explosion of a lamp, which set fire to a large Adrianople curtain. The bazaar, which was composed of wood and canvas, became a mass of flames in a very few minutes. The public, seeing the flames spreading to the left, hurried towards the right, where the back of the building was against a high wall. There were in all eight exits, of which three were in the front, one on the left, whilst four were at the back. It is easy to understand what happened. Those near the exits escaped, but those at the back, not being aware of the attendants’ exits, were caught in the trap, and the more the flames crept upon them the more they pressed towards the right, where there was no exit. It was on that side that the number of victims was most considerable. By good fortune, in the high wall of the court of the La Rsine Palace is a barred window, and those in the hotel had the presence of mind to break the bars, and thus saved many persons’ lives. The scene outside the building was shocking. Crowds of terrified people were seen running away from the bazaar, among them being women in petticoats, and even more lightly clad ; some wbose clothes had been burned, and others who bad suffered in the struggle. All round were men and women inquiring, with feverish anxiety, for their relatives. The flames spread so quickly that even before the arrival of the first police assistance or help of any kind the entire structure was blazing. Two steam fire engines were at work a quarter of an hour after the alarm was given, but the first help was given by cabmen and the grooms from the neighboring livery stables with their water pipes. In an hour the bazaar was a heap of smoking ruins. Then the work of removing the dead began. Eich corpse was carefully wrapped in a shroud, together with every object capable of assisting in its identification, for the victims were horribly torn and charred. Many of them had lost all semblance to humau beings. HOW THE DISASTER OCCURRED. M. Sabatier, who was in the ciuematographe department, saw the lamp set fire to the drapery. He pointed this out to an officer present, and the two tried to clear the public out of the little room without starting a panic. The flames spread so rapidly, however, that their efforts were utterly useless. Meantime the fire had spread to the canvas roof, and in five minutes had reached the other end of the building, so that those in the bazaar were beneath a vault of fire, from which was falling a constant rain of blazing pitch. This explains how nearly all the victims were burned on the head and feet, while frequently the middle of the body was untouched. Despite M. Sabatier’s efforts he was swept to the other end of the bazaar, where he was the witness of heartrending scenes. A young lady implored him to save her. The look in her eyes and her appealing gestures would defy forgetfulness. He was uuable to help her, in spite of his wish to do so, as two other women were clinging desperately to him, one of them holding him round the neck and nearly strangling him. Screams were heard on every side. M. Sabatier struggled towards the aoor, accomplishing the last few yards on his bands and knees, and still dragging the two women, whom he was thus enabled to save. He escaped with nothing worse than many bruises. Meantime a couple of hundred persons were flit off from the exits by the flames, and they had collected in an empty space between the bazaar and the high wall at the back. The ends of this empty space were closed by palisades. Had the persona in the baziar been men, instead of women, probably few lives would have been lost, but the dresses caught fire easily, and allowed the flames to spread from one to the other. Moreover, a band of men would probably have been able to smash down the palisades. These SOO persons, who were practically prisoners, were screaming for help, and seemed beyond hope. It was then that M. Gomery, the chief of the Hotel du Palais, appeared with a sledge hammer, aud smashed three of the bars of the grated window’, through which 150 persons were pulled, while about fifty others escaped over a wall upwards of 30ft high by ladders placed there by the staff of the ‘ Journal de la Croix.’ The scene, as described by the hotel people, was terrible. A crowd of terrified women stood wringing their hands and weeping, or ran distractedly up and down, while the window bars were being broken. Every now and then they were enveloped in flames. Sometimes exit meant salvation, and sometimes the victims fell writhing on the ground, to rise no more. When .the bars were smashed two chairs were handed out, and a couple of Sisters of Mercy, with splendid devotion, took the panic-stricken women one by one, and helped them to within reach of M. Gomery, who then pulled them up, and passed them to the staff of the hotel, who drenched those whose clothes were on fire, and attended to their injuries. In many instances great personal courage was displayed by the rescuers. The official figures of the dead are 111, and there are in addition ninety-two pieces of bodies. Dramatic scenes took place at the identification of the dead, which was in nearly every case arrived at by means of articles of jewellery. Thus Baronne De Came de Saint Marten was identified by her bracelets, every stitch of clothing having disappeared, although her body was not burned. The Duchess D’Uzes had a very narrow escape, her stall being at the back of the bazaar. The Comtesse Greffulhe and her daughter, the Marquise De Leygues, owe their lives to the heroism of their footman, who helped them over a wall. As showing the fierceness of the heat, a cash ly>x was found containing 10,000fr, and the money had melted. Nearly all who escaped were more or less injured. Dresses were burned off the backs of the wearers. Many who bad torn their blazing hats off their heads rushed into the streets with their heads singed to the roots of their hair. The clothes of those not burned were torn off their back?. No painter ever imagined a spectacle so appalling Hii“j bands, wives, fathers, and mothers »ho 1 escaped were, perhaps, mor • to be pitied ! than those who lost their lives, as tht-y j knew not what members of their families I remained in the furnace. The agonising sua- • pense made them forget their own burns.

A young lady, whose clothes were all burned off, ran down the Champe Elyaetf to tell her mother she was safe. The 200 victims dead, dying, injured, or for ever mutilated have thrown into'monra* ing probably 1,000 families, while all the world shares the grief of France. Rochefort and his Anarchist colleagues profess to regard the catastrophe as a kind of ex> piation for the exeoution of the Barcelona Anarchists. GALLANT RESCUES AND NARROW ESCAPES. There were many acta of gallantry and narrow escapes. Mdme. Foulard was saved by her husband, who, once he had got her outside in safety, dashed back to save his daughter. He had clasped the girl in his arms and nearly had reached the door when he was caught by the flames, and both father and daughter perished before the eyes of the agonised mother. Baron De Macken had a very similar experience. Seven times he penetrated the ruins in search of his sister, and each time he sated someone else, only afterwards to see his sister fall before his eyes without having strength left to enter the furnace of flames. The Marquise De L'Aigle was rascued by a fireman at the very moment she had given herself up for lost. All her friends had fallen round her, and she herself was on her knees, awaiting death in prayer, when a gallant fireman caught her up and passed her out alive bnt frightfully burned. Dunhesse D'Uzes was able to make her way out by a door among the first, and was only slightly burned on the cheek. General Laiuker, Commander-in-Chief, was close by her side, and also escaped with a scorching. He afterwards actively assisted in helping others less fortunate than himself. A plumbers' laborer greatly distinguished himself. Again and again he dasbed in among the people, and, although scorched and burned himself, he did not cease his exertions until the roof of the bazaar fell in, and further efforts were impossible. DESCRIPTION" BY AN EVE-WITSESS. The bazaar faces the stables of Baron Alphonse De Rothschild. One of the baron's grooms, named Gamard, who was standing in the doorway of the stables when the fire broke out, a Dates he had never seen a more appalling sight. In less than five minutes nothing was left of the bazaar. About twenty minutes past four he saw a woman rush out of the bazaar into the street shouting "Fire, fire." He looked to see where the fire was, and saw nothing but a little smoke that arose from the roof of the structure near the centre. He could not think why the woman was in such a fright, when suddenly he heard a roar, or rather a profound murmur. Then the roof buret into flames, just like a box of matches. Instantly there was a rash of people into the street, terror being depicted on every face. The hair of some was burning, and the clothing of the others was scorched. There was such a crush from the inside building to the door that ten women fell together in a heap on the pavement. Those following tumbled pell-melt over their bodies, crushing and bruising them, and poor women shrieked in agony. It was heart-rending. He rushed out to try and lift one of them up, but was driven back by the flood of f reozied people, who, with death behind them, poured forth from the blazing building, shrieking with agony. Many threw themselves to the ground, and rolled from side to side in their attempt to stifle the flames from their clothes that were consuming their faces. One lady had reached the street in safety; then apparently noticing that someone—her child, perhaps—was not with her, she had the sublime courage to try and force her way back against the human torrent, biting and scratching like a m*d creature to gain a path for herself. She succeeded in re-entering the furnace, from which there can hardly be a doubt she never emerged. Then came a man with his hair and beard aflame. Amongst them was General Meunie, with his clothes ablaze. In his agony he ran into the courtyard in front of the stables, and, seeing a trough full of water, jumped into it. He died subsequently in the hospital of his injuries. About forty injured persons took refuge in the groom's house. Fetching a quantity of hose, jets of water were turned on the burniug people, and so saved several from being roasted alive.