BUS ON FIRE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 September 1924, Page 5

BUS ON FIRE

HELPLESS ONLOOKERS

TERRIBLE FATE OF PASSENGERS.

** OABLR— PRESS ABBOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

LONDON, Aug. 31. A ' big crowd watched the motor-bus fire, resulting in seven deaths and five being severely burned, but were unablo to help the unfortunate people to escape. Directly the fit® broke out there was a. mass of flames from , the bottom qf the motor-’bus. Shrieking passengers rushed fc;r the door, and several were quickly wedged in the entrance so that the door could not be opened.

. Confusion was added by a man falling so that his head was wedged under one. seat and his • feet under another. The rest of the passengers trampled on him until the flames put him out of his misery. The only escape for the others was by breaking the windows. Two or three were thus rescued, though one Woman was seen to be beating the Woodwork frantically until she collapsed in the flames. Another woman seized lier, small boy and escaped, but her husband and small daughter failed, and both perished.