KENT FIRE TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20307, 15 July 1929, Page 11

KENT FIRE TRAGEDY.

[DEATH BOLL NOW 15.

INJURED fireman dead. dlinded scout succumbs, disaster not explained. ELACK WEEK IN BRITAIN. Ey Telesrapli—Press Association—Copyriclit. /nstralinn Press Association—United Service (Received July It, 5.5 p.m.) BONDOX, July 13. Three of the persons injured in the Fire j M the dummy house at the feto in C«ilPark have succumbed, including n fireman, Facktarbett, which brings tho number of deaths to 15. The mother and father of Leonard Winn, aged 13, a Sea Scout ( who was injured in the fire, sat at his bedside thioughout the night, waiting for tho end. Tho bev constantly strove to obtain a last look at his parents. lie seemed not to reali>e that ho was blind. His father (old him he was dying, but ho did not seem to mind, lie asked after (lie other boys. How the tragedy happened nobody seems to know, because those who might explain have perished. It was an annual comedy, in which tho firemen are supposed to rescue the Scouts, who hang out of the windows and scream for help. A maroon light should have been fired (0 indicate that all was clear, but 011 this occasion the combustibles were lit first. A crowd of 5000 spectators laughed at the antics of tlie actors on the roof. Then the fire broke out, and the actors rushed hither and thither seeking to escape. Tho boys came to the windows crying for help, but the crowd only laughed louder.

Even tho firemen in the waiting queue laughed. Then they wero seized with horror, They had only a makeshift tank, "which was useless. The firemen did their be.st.

Many pcoplo did not wait for the end, hut went home, not even knowing that a tragedy had been enacted. Apart, from those who leaped to tho ground nearly all the victims were found huddled on the roof. They were mostly unrecognisable, and four bodies remain unidentified. One of tho injured firemen is in a critical condition.

It has been a tragic week for Britain, with the sinking of submarine 1147, two colliery disasters, and a cinema fire, in which there were two deaths. Altogether persons have lost their lives.