OVER 70 DEAD.

Grey River Argus, 11 January 1927, Page 5

OVER 70 DEAD.

MQVIE FIRE. Canadian Disaster. OTTAWA, January 9. The Laurier moving picture theatre at Ylontreal was desiroyecl by fire this (Sunday i aft ernoon. It is believed that one hundred lives were lost. (Received .Tanuarv 10 at 5.5 p.m.) YIONTREAL, January 9. The death roll by the fire at the Laurier picTure house is 70, and perhaps more. T’lie fatalities Avert* practically the result of a frenzied rush by the audience when tin* fire was discovered. Most of the dead children were to have been crushed or suffocated in the stampede. The Theatre was iilh*d with eleven hundred persons, mostly juveniles. Little damage was done by th.* Hames, which were quickly extinguished by firemen. HOW DISASTER OCCURRED. YIONTREAL, January 9. The boys and girls wlio were in the van of the stampeding mobs from the baleonv were pressed on suddenly from Dip rear. 'l'his caused them to stumble ami fall. In an instant, panic seized those in the rear, am! then* was a shoving and scrambling. r l'hen boys and girls were piled in a heap, and a minute or Iwo proved sufficient for the stairway to become a solid, suffocating, groaning, shrieking, ami dying mass. Firemen ami police Avere instantly on the spot, and many of the children were rescued from the jam. Holes were cut through the wooden stairs directly under the jam of the bodies, and another hole was cut in the wall. Nearly all of those pulled out from the stairway were dead. SURVIVOR’S STORY. OTTAWA, Jan. 10. A ten-year-old survivor related his experience as follows: “I was standi; g in the gnllerv while a funny pictuic was being shown. Everyone was laughing. Suddenly I heard someone yelf “Fire!” Then the people began to sei cam. All started rushing downstairs. Eveiyone pilf-d on top of other. 1 climbed over and a boy grasped mv foot and tried to pull himseb from’-he others. 1 struggled and mv 3'he number of deaths at this t re makes it the greatest tragedy of irs kind in Canada’s history. Death Roll Mounts Up. STAIRWAY A DEATH TRAD. (K,\ i-i| Jiinuiiry 10 :i1 8,20 p.m.) MONTiiEAL. Jmiuary 9. Tl„- number of ileml in the einema fire has inereaseil to 77. The stairway from the theatre baleonv was a ileaih trail. It was here that the ehililren were pinnneil ami erm boil at a turnT’lie firemen ent a hole in the street ■ wall to get nt the bodies. All tiie (lead were victims of the stampede, and merely ten minutes encompassed tin- whole tragedy. Nearly 109 Dead. AN AWFUL SCENE. CROWD OF CHILDREN CRUSHER ON STAIRWAY’. (Reed. Jam 10 at 9.5 p.m.) MONTREAL, Jan. 10. It was a slight fire, due probably to crossed wires, in the Laurier Cinema

'Theatre which caused the stampede. There were ninety-six lives lost. The victims mostly were French Canadian children, under sixteen years of age. The act mil fire was negligible. The deaths were due mainly to trampling, coupled with asphyxiation and smoke. The victims struggled to escape through u mirrow sttiirwoy. Scenes of terror were witnessed as the parents battled will) the police and firemen to eiiier the theatre. Seventy-three of the dead have been identified. Women and children were lodged so tightly at the foot of the stairway that, tnc firemen we'e forced .to break a hole in the wall to relieve the pressure. Then they had to form a “hump chain” to pass out the victims. One or th- children was so firmly we<!ged that twenty men were unable to c-xtrie.ate him from the mass of bod--11 A priest hurried to the scene and a I ministered the last rites to the sutAll flu- available .loetors assisted in treating victims, many of whom were

mangled bevond recognition. Scenes were enacted at the morgue, where grief-crazed parents were sod’ing for their offspring, not knowing whether they were dead or alive. THEATRE PEOPLE ARRESTED. I \V7 \;;aix<tAtih.diien’s presence. MONTREAL, Jam H>The cinema proprietor, Ameen Lav"ranz and three of the employees <. r the theatre are being held for the inquest to-day. Some families lost three children The provincial laws prohibit e.nldrei under the age of 16 from gaming ad mission to the cinema unless speeia permission is given for children . show s.