FIRE AND TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19809, 2 December 1927, Page 14

FIRE AND TRAGEDY.

GERMAN CASTLE BURNED. SEVERAL PERSONS KILLED. SAD END TO SHOOTING PARTY. Details of the tragic fire at an old German castlo in October are given in the Lpndon papers. A large shooting party was assembled round the luncheon table in the moated castle of Affing, 20 miles north-east of Augsburg, when a peasant woman in the neighbouring village noticed smoke rising from the roof. An hour or so later the building was the scene of incidents so appalling that a number of the impotent 1 witnesses of them were prostrated by nervous shock. Buried beneath the smoking ruins of the castlo were the remains of six victims who perished in the fire. Of a dozen persons lying in Augsburg suffering from grave injuries or burns three or four were not expected to survive. Those less seriously injured numbered between 20 and 30.

The fire assumed its murderous form through the collapse of the central tower of the castle. The local amateur fire brigade, consisting mainly of peasants and workmen from the village, was busy on the garret floor where the outbreak began, when the tower suddenly fell in, destroying the main staircase and burying several people beneath the masonry and timbers.

Desperate efforts were made to extricate the people before the flames reached them. One young man, held fast by tho legs and the lower part of the body, was almost free when the burning ceiling fell, overwhelming him and one of his wouldbe rescuers in a common fate. A motorcyclist from Augsburg, who happened to be in the village and volunteered to help, had an even more horrible death. Ihe rescue party had cleared his head and shoulders from the dtebris by which ho had been covered, and ha himself was desperately tearing out lumps of stones and- plaster with both hands, when the flames closed round and made impossible further attempts to save him. Uttering heartrending cries, the unhappy man had to be left to his Lite.

Through the destruction of thc staircase the escape of a number of people in the top storey was cut off, and it was necessary to let them down from the windows by ropes. One of the maids, in her excitement, lost hold of tho rope and fell from a considerable height, but escaped without very serious injury.

A man fell from the roof while attempting to reach e boy who was hanging by his hands from the gutter as a last escape from the flames. A washerwoman met her death in a gallant attempt to save the linen on which she had been working in tho attic. "The material loss, which includes a magnificent library, was estimated at about £50,000.