TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 4 September 1913, Page 5

TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS.

HEROIC EFFORTS TO SAVE

'BY CABLE—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COPYEIGHT.

LONDON, Sept. 3. The ascent of Wisgill is the highest spiece of railway line in England. The -gradient is one in a" hundred, . The scene of the accident is in the iheart of the Pennines, surrounded by 'bleak hills with only a few scattered •cottages in the vicinity. Little water was available, and doctors and nurses were unobtainable till some hours after the collision. The railway officials aroused the oc■cupants of the sleeping cars and made

the passengers alight. Many of the ■women were only partially dressed. The passengers did not realise the ■ seriousness of the disaster until a voice in the darkness cried: "Men are • -wanted to help. No women are ••wanted." The men running saw a desperate scene of destruction, and the outbreak -of fire completed the tragedy. Neighboring farmers and shepherds assisted i ;the police to rescue the imprisoned persons until the flames beat back the : rescuers. Many sobbed to see hands waving to - attract attention after the accident. Eight passengers tugged .at an el- - derly man who was pinned at the waist, until his clothes were pulled off and "his flesh torn. As the flames crept -up the man kept crying: "For God's ■sake pull me out!" " Every few moments the rescuers had to draw back '"* -f rom the scorching heat. Finally they .made a final dash and pulled the man ■out just as the burning woodwork released him at the waist. in another case a clergyman who ■saw that_ it was impossible to succor . a man pinned in the wreckage, raised .''his hat and offered a prayer. Mrs Morrison,' returning from a holi- - day with her children and mother, was badly injured. Her baby in arms was rescued. He*-first words"were: "Don't bother about me; find the children." There are three children among the unidentified dead. No list of those killed is possible, and in several cases ■ even the sex is unknown. In other cases the only proof is the remains of corsets found embedded in the charred remains.

Sir Arthur Douglas was travelling from Glasgow to Gloucester. The critical experience which he underwent while pinned in the burning carriage was a terrible ordeal for a man advanced in years. He is now at Carlisle Infirmary, whither six porters carried him suffering from burns on both feet and his hands, back, neck, head, and thich. The fire was apparently caused by the illuminating pas escaping from the tanks beneath the carriages. This raises the problem of whether electricity should not be substituted, a question that was discussed in connection with the 1910 disaster.