DISASTER IN PARIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12543, 9 April 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

DISASTER IN PARIS.

CELLULOID EXPLOSION KILLS FOURTEEN PEOPLE. A terrible disaster occurred in Paris at a factory in the Boulevard Sevastopol, used for the manufacture of celluloid combs unci similar articles. '{'he work was proceeding at full swing, when a terrific explosion occurred, which threw the entire neighbourhood into a panic. Three workmen were blown >- <lily through the windows of the factory, and so killed, while '11 workpeople—men and girlswere either suffocated by the fumes or burnt to death i» the fire that followed the- explosion. After ths explosion enormous sheets of flams burst out from the windows of the undo storeys. The workmen and workwomen euyiloyed by the firm, who live in the building, took refuge on the balconies, in many cases with their clothes already on fire. Their shrieks of terror were heartrending. Some of them, maddened with fear as the flames threatened to envelop them, jumped from tha third storey into the street. Otia of the rescuer?, who emerged exhausted from the budding, said: "I was one of the sirst to reach there, and 1 ran up to the sixth floor attics. . There the other rescuers and I found two women, whom we brought cut in safety. We discovered another woman apparently about 25 years of ago lying dead in her room. c jhe had fallen backwards, and her head was in the grato. The body of her dog was lyiug at the door. The tiro had evidently surprised her at lunch, for there was still food on the table. She. had been suffocated. , The fere spread with incredible speed,, and soon reached too fifth ami sixth floors and the attics.."-