FIRE PANIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 June 1937, Page 4

FIRE PANIC

SYDNEY BUILDING ENDANGERED,

A panic, which firemen state was the worst they had experienced in,

Sydney, was caused by fire in Cameo Chambers, Pitt Street last week. Terrified by the darkness and dense volumes of choking smoke, panicstricken children, who had been attending dancing lessons, clung to the firemen as they entered the building and would not let them go. Several women and girls were in little better state, the failure of the lights having added to their alarm. All. however, recovered when they were taken into the fresh air.

The first broke out shortly before 5 p.m. in the main switchboard, which is on the ground floor, and which controls the electric light and power throughout the building. Dense smoke wad given off from the burning rubber insulation.

On the second floor of the building about a dozen children were taking lessons in tap dancing at the studio of Mr. Neville Hawtrey. Some of them were very young, and were accompanied by relatives. There were about a dozen girls also in a tailor’s establishment on the fourth floor, and there were other women, and some men, in other offices in the building, nearly all of them on the upper floors. When the lights failed there was a wild rush for the main stairway, but because of the darkness and the smoke most of those who attempted to descend it lost their way, or were forced to abandon the attempt. Women and children were soon screaming. ' Firemen used chemical extinguishers, the use of water being dangerous with electrical fires. These extinguishers also gave off noxious fumes. The deputy chief lire officer (Mr. Beare) sent firemen up the stairs. The glare of their torches shoKved extraordinary scenes. District Officer Griffiths, the first inan up, was rushed by' sobbing children, who seized his hands and even his clothing, and clung so fiercely that they could not have been dislodged without, being hurt.

SCREAMING WOMEN. The liremen ran from floor to floor, some of them with children in their arms, shouting out that there was no need for panic. They found women screaming for fhir children, many of them in a state of collapse. On Mr. Beare's instructions all the women and children who could be found were taken out through a fire escape door <m to the steeply-sloping roof, where they crouched, in steady rain, gulping in fresh air. The smoke cleared in about 10 minutes, and all were able to descend. The children recovered quickly from their fright, and were overcome with excitement and gratification when the liremen carried them downstairs. Some of the women suffered seriously from shock. Mrs. W. H. Harris, of Nelson's Bay Road, Bronte, lust both her children, a baby and a girl aged four. After : earching wildly for them through smoke-filled corridors, she found them in the street, in the arms of liremen. She was suffering. so severely from 'hock, however, that, the firemen scut her home. Miss E. Parkes, who conduct:-; a dam-e studio on the first floor.

said that the experience was one of the most unpleasant of her life. “I am not surprised al the children be-

ing so terrified," she said. “I was making a cup of lest in the studio when there was a loud explosion, and the lights went out. They came on again, but there were more explosions, and they failed completely. “The smoke that came pouring up the stairs was so thick that it cut off even the light which should have come from the open window. I could not see a yard. It was impossible to go down the stairs—the smoke seemed to grip me by the throat. I went to the window, looked up, and saw many more heads out of windows above me. j There were many women, but some] men, too. Women were screaming, I and begging the firemen to send up] their ladders from the street. The, liremen soon stopped the panic. They really were wonderful with Hie children." The damage done was confined 10l the switchboard. 1