CHRISTMAS EVE DISASTERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1924, Page 5

CHRISTMAS EVE DISASTERS.

HEAVY. CASUALTY LISTS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT NEW YORK, Dec. 25. A message from Abingdon, Virginia, reports that twenty-three- persons were killed and many injured through the breaking of a dam on the Holston river. Another account says tha ! t twelve were drowned at ParkmartoWn, Virginia, on Christmas Eve, and twentyeight are seriously ill. The emergency dam stemming'the Holston river for the purpose of supplying water for local chemical works broke, the waters flooding dowm and carrying hundreds of houses down stream, drowning those caught- unawares. Others were seriously blinded owing to the water being polluted by alkali muck from the chemical works. \

Another disaster, involving the loss of a large number of lives, occurred in a widely separated section of the country. Thirty-six men, women jjnd children were burned to death, and forty others were so seriously injured that few of them are expected to recover, in a fire which destroyed a country school at Hobart (or Hobbswitch)/ .Oklahoma, on- Christmas, Eve. An entertainment was in progress, when, : .it is believed, a- .lighted candle on a Christmas tree* started the fire. The extremely cold weather, which has been gripping the country everywhere, had frozen thewater supply, making the efforts of the fire fighters unavailing. The attemps of parents and children to crowd out froin the burning . building caused the narrow exits to be congested, many being trampled and crushed to death before being burned.