CATASTROPHES THAT THRILLED THE WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2128, 29 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

CATASTROPHES THAT THRILLED THE WORLD.

APPALLING SCENES IN GLAZING THEATRES.

HOW THE FIBFtS WERE CAUSED AND HUNDREDS OF LIVES LOST.

There hiivo been many fearful holocausts within the memory of men not yet past middle age, but for concentrated horror not one of them rail compare with the lire which made of the Ring Theatre, Vienna, a ••burning fiery furnace,’’ on the night of December Stli, I SSI. THE BURNING OE THE RING ' THEATRE, VIENNA. It was a public holiday, and the theatre was crowded almost to suffocation, from pit to gallery, for a performance of Offenbach's “Contes do Hoffmann." Only a few minutes before the performance was to commence the curtain was seen to bulge forward as if impelled by a sudden gust of wind, and from beneath it a large sheet of flame darted towards the audience. Cries of “Eire!” rang out from every part of the ter-ror-stricken house, and in a moment the theatre was converted into a pandemonium of frantic men and women.

Quick almost as lightning tin 1 devouring flames had flashed round the line of boxes, enveloping tho theatre in a circle of fire, whose fierce breath scorched the struggling crowds and drove them to distraction ; while, to add to tlie confusion, the gas was turned off, and the oil-lamps, provided according ,to police regul itions, had not been lighted. Women fainted and were trampled ruthlessly under foot in the mad stampede for the places of exit. .Most of the pit occupants found their way, battered and half demented with fright, to safety; but in the galleries and stairc.ises the struggle for life was as desperate as it was -hopeless.

STRUGGLING WITH THE FLA ALES.

The gallery was soon a mass of writhing and struggling humanity; the dark, tortuous stairs became choked with fallen bodies to the depth of several yards; escape that way was impossible. Those who could fight their way to the windows flung themselves out, to be crushed to death in the street below; and when, after what seemed an eternity to the horrified thousands outside and to rho poor, desperate creatures inside ,bo inferno of flame, a large sailcloth was brought, and held by scores of willing hands, many were too exhausted to jump into it, and were seen to sink back into the flames. NEARLY FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST. Of the 1,800 spectators who had crowded the house, full of the joy of life and eager anticipation of a few happy hours, 500 perished, some, at least, of whom might have been rescued; for, incredible as it seems, not a single ladder was init to the windows, no fireman entered through the balconies, and the doors were actually locked while there was good icason to hope that some of .the unhappy people inside were still alive!

FIRE AT THE OPERA COMIQUE, PARIS.

Less than*six years later Paris was the scene of a horror little less tragic. On the night of Alay 25th, 1887, a large audience had assembled to witness the performance of “Alignon” at the Opera Comique. About a quarter to nine, shortly . after the curtain had risen, the audience were startled to see fire issuing from the stage. Cries of alarm were followed by a mad stampede from the theat-c. Some of the actors remained on the stage and tried to calm the terrified audience; but their efforts were in vain, for the people, shrieking and gesticulating, rushed wildly for the doors. 1

WHAT A (SPECTATOR SAW

At this juncture the gas was put out, and.in a building now lighted only by the flames a fearful scene ensued, rivalling in horror that at Vienna. “It seemed,” said ail outside spectator, “as if flumes were shooting horizontally from most of the windows, and a cone of flame, from which embers tossed about so as to make it resemble a huge fiery fountain, arose from where the roof had -been. There were a few.ladders against some windows, and women and children were being taken down by men. I saw others throw themselves from a topmost storey. “•Sometimes a figure was seen wildly darting past a window across the background of fire, and then it was seen no more. ; A man in a super’s dress came out oi an attic, and musthave bung on for nearly five minutes by an iron bar. He was rescued in the end, but I should say be was the last who could .be saved by a ladder, the (lames that kept belching out of every fissure being so terrible that nobody could stay even in the space which, surrounds three sides of the Opera Comique.” NUMBER OF DFAD NOT KNOWN A dresser described how she he ml a roar, and a column of flame mounted the stair and burst into the ward-robo-room, where she stood. She was luckily able Jo escape through the window, which fortunately opened on a gutter, where she remained until sh” was rescued. Several of those who were with her got out. Some of them, in their flight and hurry, knocked e mil other over, and they must have been killed in the fierce flames which raged around them. Hpw many perished in this terrible fire, which burnt the theatre to the ground, was neypr known exactly. For several days the work of searching the ruins was continued, and the J charred blackened remains of more 1 than 100 nersons were discovered.

THE GREAT FIRE AT EXETER

But i lew mouths later—on September sth, 188” —Exeter was llie • scene of aiueber ol these I enable tragedies, in which sonic 200 lives were lost. The outbreak occurred just on the stroke oi half-past leu. during the fourth act oi (I. R. Suns < “Romany Rye.” During the kidnapping incident the drop-scene suddenly fell in front of one of the actors, to his discomfiture and to the amusement of ,the audience. But lausditer was soon changed to shouts

of terror when the canvas was pulled out into the stalls and pit, ’’ollowed by a mass of flame and slut .vers of sparks. Shrieks of "Fire!" were raised, panic ensued,-and in (ho headlong rush for the doors there ensued one of the most awful scenes ever witnessed within theatre walls. TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE UURNED TO DEATH.

Tho occupants of tile stalls, pit, iml dress circle mostly escaped alter a terrible struggle; hut in tho gallery the direst panic and confusion reigned, for before escape was possible the building bad been converted into a furnace. "Flames shot up through the roof over the stage, volumes of smoke wore poured from every window, women .threw themselves into the street from side balconies 40ft. high ,ancl the Hit loads were crowded with human beings, maddened with terror and shrieking for help. Fortunately ladders were promptly available, and most of those who had climbed outside the building were taken down safely. Rut alas! for those within the theatre. There was but one g tilery exit, wide enough, but with-a sharp angle in it which, in the mad downward rush, at once became .blocked with fallen bodies, forming an insuperable barrier to those behind. Here, when at- last the rescuers were able to enter, a terrible heap of bodies was found piled up and bearing evidence of the ghastly light for life which had followed the stampede. Corpse after corpse was removed, many quite unrecognisable, and by midnight seventy bodies bad been recovered. By one o’clock over a hundred were lying in rows in the stableyard of a neighboring hotel. So fearful had been the struggle for life in that fatal staircase angle that many of the victims’ limbs had been fractured and some even wrenched ofl. ■ And yet. had they but retained a little self-possession, many, if not all. of these unhappy people might have found an easy way to safety; for, by dropping over a low railing into the upper circle -beneath them, the gallery occupants might have escaped into the street through a roomy lobbv and a wide stone staircase.

TRAGEDY OF THE OPERA HOUSE, NICE. There is but room for one more of these lire tragedies, that of which tile Opera House, Nice, was the terrible scene on March 23rd, TSS.I. The town was gila-making' in honor of the visit of the Mediterranean (squadron, and the Opera House was crowded to the doors with a gay and light-hearted audience. Rut before even the curtain was rung up a gasjet had set some of the stage-sce-nery alight; an explosion of gas quickly followed, putting out the lights, and before the.audience could grasp the situation, the house was idle! with suffocating clouds of smoke. Then pandemonium was let loose in the stifling darkness, and mad, blind rushes, were made in all directions. In the galleries the same tragedy we have described was repeated. The narrow staircase was jammed with terror-stricken- people fighting furiously and stumbling over each other in vain efforts to escape from the scorching flames and choking smoke: while frantic men and women flung themselves into space from the upper windows.

AIORE THAN 100 PERISHED IN AGONY. No water was available to check the flames until sailors, hastily summoned from the Fleet-, brought buckets filled with sea-water, which but seemed to feed tho fury of the raging fire. Two midshipmen made a gallant and successful attempt to save some ijiihappy beings who were horribly scorched, and one of whom was raving mid; but fully 100 .perished in agony, including many of tho artistes. The tragedy was heightened by the fact that a door of egress from the upper galleries survived the fire, and on it were the words; “Porte en cas d’incendie” (Exit in case of fire); but the door had not been opened for years, and had refused to yield even to the desperate onslaught ol the maddened seekers of safety.