MAIL TRAIN ON FIRE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 261, 4 November 1912, Page 7

MAIL TRAIN ON FIRE.

SCHOOLBOYS' NARROW ESCAPE

PLAYING WITH CHEMICALS

Twenty schoolboys had narrow escapes from a terrible death recently. They belonged to Stonyhurst Roman Catholic College, Blackburn, and were returning to school after spending their vacation in Ireland. For their accommodation a coach was reserved in the middle of the London and North-Western Irish mail train, running from Holyhead to Manr chester, via Crewe. -. :;. Before the train reached Colwyn Bay the coach was found to be in flames. There is. reason to believe that some of the boys had broken up a chemical cube which is used for disinfecting purposes, and applied a lighted paper to it to see if it would burn. It proved to be highly inflammable, and the carriage was soon enveloped in flames. The first intimation of there being anything wrong was when some i laborers, working near the line at a point about a mile on the Holyhead side of Colwyn Bay, saw a little boy fall from one of the carriages, which the men also noticed was full of smoke. The lad lay huddled up by the side of the permanent way, with his clothes on fire. He was unconscious and bleeding * from a serious scalp wound. He is Frank Hannan, and his address is given as Glebe House, Gorebridge, Kilkenny. Hannan, who is oniy 10, had a thrilling experience. In order to escape the flames he crept out on to the footboard of the train in company with another boy. The latter held him up for a little while, but, owing to the heat and the little fellow's weight, was forced to relinquish his grip. Hannan fell on to the side of the track. The other boy, who had behaved with considerable pluck under trying circumstances, was able to retain his hold until the train had almost been brought to a standstill, when he, too, fell, bruising himself rather badly. '

Meanwhile a passenger in another part of the train had noticed that the ' coach was on fire, and pulled the communication cord, but the train had reached a point 200 yards outside Colwyn Bay before it could be pulled up. m The occupants of the burning carriage jumped out. Their faces were blackened, their hair singed, and their hands badly burned. Three, including a brother of Hannan, had to be medically treated. ' By this time the carriage was a roaring furnace, and it was nearly half an hour before the flames could | be sufficiently subdued to permit of j the railway officials and workmen un-

coupling and shunting the" wrecked coach on to another line to enable the express to proceed. Not only was the coach gutted, but the flames had scorched the end of the carriage following. , A passenger in the adjoining coach afterwards said that some time before the train slowed up he fancied he heard shrill screams, but did not realise that anything serious was happening. Smoke was passing his carriage window, but he thought it was from the engine. He believed that someone who put his head out of one of the rear coaches while passing a, bend in the line saw that the train was on fire, and pulled the communication cord.

The high speed at which the express was travelling helped to fan the names. It. was exceedingly fortunate, said the passenger, that the train stopped when it did, because if it>had gone much farther the lads would have perished in the fire. The lads, when rescued, we-re not suffering from burns so much as from fright. _ One little fellow declared that their experience had been terrible. They expected every minute that the carriage would collapse, or that they would be burned to death. Asked why they did not pull the communication cord, one said he did not know, but he supposed it was because they all lost their heads.