CASTLE FALLS IN FIRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2516, 20 December 1927, Page 7

CASTLE FALLS IN FIRE.

TERROR AND DEATH. AT FEAST OF HUNT PARTY. Berlin, October 14, Circumstances suggestive of one of Edgar Allen Poe’s tales of horror attended the destruction by fire of one of the oldest historic spots in Southern Germany. At least six people were burnt to death or crushed beneath falling stone and timbers. Twelve more, three of whom are in a critical condition, were seriously injured, and 25 others were hurt. The destroyed building is situated about twenty miles from Augsburg, in Bavaria. It is the residence of Baron von Gravenreutli, formerly Court Chamberlain in the service of the since-deposed Bavarian monarch. Razed to the ground during the 30 years’ war, Castle Affing was re-built in the 17th, century. It constituted an imposing complex of walls and towers, completely surrounded by a moat. ALARM AT FESTAL BOARD. At the time of the catastrophe the baron was entertaining a party of hunting guests, who were lunching festively when the servants raised the alarm of fire. A defective chimney had set light to the timbered roof, over 100 ft high, of the castle, and within a few minutes the top roof was ablaze. Hosts and guests joined with the castle personnel, and later with the fire brigades of neighbouring villages, in trying to prevent the fire spreading to the lower floors. It was during these operations that there occurred with frightful suddenness, the disaster that brought death and injury to so many victims. With an appalling roar, the great central tower of the castle, supported on ancient timbers that had burned like matchwood, collapsed. It crashed into fragments the main staircase on which, or in the rooms above, were fifty firemen and other helpers. Some of these were carried downwards and crushed beneath falling stone and timber. Others, their means of descent cut off, were imprisoned in rooms and passages on the burning top floor. Several of these saved themselves by sliding down ropes. One terrified boy clung to the coping, and in attempting to rescue him a fireman fell 50ft, and was terribly injured. One fireman was burned to death like a living torch in view of helpless onlookers. He had been caught and imprisoned by the masonry of the collapsed tower. . Another similar tragedy involved the death of an heroic would-be rescuer. The latter had nearly freed from the imprisoning stone one of his comrades when a block of masonry collapsed, and both the trapped man and his intending rescuer were crushed to death.