Terrible Tragedy at Paisley

Evening Star, Issue 20372, 2 January 1930, Page 8

Terrible Tragedy at Paisley

LONDON, December 31. There was a shocking cinema fire at Paisley, and 80 people already have been certified as dead, including many children. The casualty list is still growing, and 200 have been sent to the hospitals. The cinema was crowded with children when smoke was seen pouring out of the .windows. The fire brigade ran up the ladders, and there was a, wild scramble for the doors. The firemen pulled out children from doors and windows. Children were overcome and .suffocated by fumes, and many were trampled down. Tho building was surrounded by frantic parents, and there was a huge crowd, as the theatre is in tho centre of the city. All traffic was stopped. Heartrending scenes were enacted in the infirmary, which was crowded with distracted mothers. Identification is slowly proceeding. It was a special children’s Hogmanay performance at Glen Cinema, in the heart of Paisley. It was crowded out by 1,500, whoso ages ranged from infancy to fourteen years. The children, seeing the hall fill with smoke, and not knowing the cause thereof, but fearing the worst, tried to escape by rushing to tho exit at the rear of the building. Beyond the exit was a flight, of eight steps, and one or two lost their footing, and the result was the worst tragedy of its kind tho country has ever known.

There was another tragedy awaiting the children who filled tho balcony. Again some lost their footholds, and those behind came tumbling down until they were piled up six to eight deep. Thereafter it was a sombre story of slow asphyxiation, for nobody lost his or her life through burning. The building itself was not ignited, but the children were not to know'that. The operator had shown ..one film, which was rewound and placed in a container. He heard a hissing sound and saw smoke, so picked up the container, hoping to get it outside the building, but he only reachel tho vestibule, shouting for the manager. The latter took the box and cast it'through a side door to a vacant allotment. In that short space of time the children saw the smoke. When the xnanagjr returned to the auditorium all was pandemonium, and already children were heaped breast-high beyond the door leading to tho exit. He opened another on the other side of tho building, but the smoke terrified the children, and they refused for a long time to be led thither.

The firemen, who arrived inside two minutes, were welcomed as old friends. They did much to restore confidence, but first tho effect was a further stampede for tho other door. A policeman was among the first to see tho smoke coming through an upstairs window, and he got there in time to meet a tumbling cascade ~of children. A civilian who was passing heard the policeman's shout: “For God’s sake come and help.” Together they tried to disentangle the heapedup mites, and passed them out singly as they were extricated. The policeman gave his baton to the civilian, telling him to break the windows and let in the rescuers.

Ladders were brought and other rescuers climbed to upper-story windows, and thus reached tire, balcony and dropped down to the ground floor, where they found children in heaps at ’the bottom of the stairs. Others, were lying still under the seats, and many must have been dead even then, because the fumes choked the rescuers. A general summons was circulated for medical and nursing services. The police stopped cars, lorries, and tramcars and turned out the passengers, placing in children, alive and dead, and taking them to hospital, 'where the nurses were entertaining the patients at special Hogmanay tea festivites, which* were rudely broken off as the stream of victims began to arrive. Some of the nurses, appalled at the magnitude of the disaster, were overcome and fainted. The children who ■were already dead were taken below to tho basement to make room for the living. A doctor who lives close to the cinema organised a first-aid station in a factory yard, and thither some scores of injured were taken. The doctor called for women volunteers, and urriedly instructed them in artificial respiration. The official death roll this evening is 72, all due to asphyxiation. Thirtyseven cases remain in hospital, most of them suffering from shock GAS BRACKETS BROKEN CHILDREN mu WITH TERROR LONDON, January 1. Tho revised list of casualties shows 69 children dead and 37 injured. A grim coincidence is that the film which was being shown when tho disaster occurred was entitled ‘ The Crowd.’

Children Stampede at Cinema Heart-Rending Scenes Bodies Piled in Heaps Pres* Association —By Telegraph—Copyright,

Seven doctors confirm the growing impression that most of the deaths were duo to gas poisoning. The chief officer of tho brigade reports that many gas brackets were broken, apparently by children who were trying to climb over each other. There was an exceptional crowd of children, owing to the fact that the performance was a special New Year treat, two children being admitted for three halfpence. Distressing details are being accumulated every hour. One baby of 18 months was found lying on a pile. Some of the mothers were so hysterical that they identified bodies which had previously been identified by other parents. Another fireman says that the children who were alive seemed mad with terror. One boy was jammed in a corner and hemmed in by bodies. He was not looking at the dead children but upwards, all the time whimpering and wringing his hands as though trying to ward off some horror. Fortunately, apart from the* stark tragedy, there are many stories of heroism. One young man alone rescued eighteen. PAISLEY MQURHING TRAGIC SCENES OUTSIDE MORTUARY ■ LONDON, January 1. (Received January 2, at 9.30 a.m.) Paisley to-day is in mourning. Social events and New Year’s celebrations have been canceiled. Men and women are going about their duties with grave faces, and children are talking in hushed voices. There were tragic scenes outside the mortuary, where hundreds of men and women, the parents of the f dead children, waited for hours in the pouring rain, some so poorly clad that they used newspapers to 1 keep off the rain. At the infirmary the doctors and nursing staff worked throughout the nigbt tending the little ones, many of whom are suffering from shock. Their efforts are likely to be successful, for of thirty-seven patients it is Loped that twelve will be able to go home to-night. The Prime Minister sent a message to the Provost of Paisley expressing the country’s sorrow at the tragedy. MANY TRAMPLED TO DEATH BELIEF FUND OPENED LONDON. January 1. (Received January 2 at 9.5 a.m ' The nation is shocked by the Paisley cinema disaster, which was apparently caused when someone snouted “Fire'” Gas brackets were broken in the children’s wild scramble. Many rescuers declare emphatically that the hall wr thick wdth coal gas fumes and smoke. Many of the dead \yere black in the face. It is revealed, also, that a few died of injuries. Extensive scratching of knees and -faces during the panic showed acute hysteria. Three children of one family perished. Had the children remained calm and made orderly use of the various exits the tragedy would have been averted, for the building was totally undamaged by fire. ' Quite a number of children were trampled to death. ‘Fire-master Wilson, in a statement, says: “The children were everywhere, some behind the screen and some in the orchestra pit. The stairways were a ghastly sight. About 10ft wide, they were crowded with children huddled in every conceivable position, and packed as tightly as a wall of cement. The bodies of some were twisted, and others were just moaning.” A relief fund has been opened, the subscriptions already totalling £I,OOO. PUBLIC INQUIRY TO BE HELD KING’S MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 1. (Received January 2, at 1.30 p.m.) ' i immediate investigation is being m&de by a., expert of the Homo Office into the disaster at the cinema at Paisley, whereby sixty-nine children lost their lives and thirty-seven were injured, one of whom lias since died. A public inquiry will later be held. Dr Gray, of the Paisley Infirmary has dismissed the theory that the victims died from carbon monoxide poisoning from the fumes of the burning film. In the words of one official “ the children were killed trying to escape from a danger which did not exist,” but the cry of fire had already gone up, and it was too late- to avert a panic. Most of tho children died from suffocation in the crush. Some of them

leapt from the balcony on to tlfe heads of those beneath. The King and Queen have sent to the Provost of Paisley a message expressing their great distress at the appalling disaster and asking the provost to convey to the bereaved relatives their heartfelt sympathy in their overwhelming sorrow. The Prime Alinister, telephoning to the Provost, and speaking for his countrymen and countryw ’.on, sent a message of sympatl ■. He said that such a tragedy at any time would have moved the country to sorrow, but happening on New Year’s Eve, when everyone was happy with their children and was planning feasts and gaiety for them, deep indeed was the gloom which this devastation had cast upon them. “ Everyone blessed by having their children around understands in the most intimate way the torturing sorrow which is in the hearts of so many of your citizens.” The Town Council, at a special meeting to-day, decided to head the relief fund with a grant of l,ooogs and to defray the funeral expenses of the victims. SEVENTIETH DEATH. LONDON, January 1. (Received January 2, at 1 p.m.) The seventieth victim of the Paisley fire died at the infirmary. His younger brother was killed yesterday.