TRAGEDY AT A CINEMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY AT A CINEMA.

v DISASTER AT PAISLEY.

SrXTY-NINE CHILDREN PERISH.

FIRE ALARM CAUSES PANIC.

HARROWING RESCUE WORK.

Further details of the terrible cinema disaster/at Paisley, Scotland, on December 31, which was attended by the loss of 69 lives of childron and injuries to over 40 others- are contained in the British newspapers. About 2000 boys and girls were attending an afternoon performance, given as a special New Year treat. A very tragic aspect of tho disaster was that :f tho children had not taken fright there would have been little danger, as the burning film which caused alarm had been thrown out of a window. The Glen Cinema, situated at Paisley Cross was tho scene of tho disaster. Its patrons were mainly of the industrial classes. Tho hall was gaily decorated for an " All-Scotch hogmanay entertainment," the outstanding item on which was a picture entitled " Tho Crowd," described as a fight of a man and a woman to rise above the throng and win out to life.

At the top of tho vestibule-is situated the- operator's box. The first reel liad just been screened and removed from the operating machine. Tho assistant operator, Mr, James McVay, was engaged placing the film in a container when he observed smoke issuing from it. , Immediately lie informed the manager, Mr. Durward. Tho assistant then clapped the lid on the container, hoping to extinguish tho smouldering film, and kicked tho container out into a passage. There, however, the lid sprang open again, and the draught carried the smoke and fumes into the auditorium. Children Overwhelmed by Panic.

Children at the rear of the cinema, observing the smoke, raised terrified cries of •" Fire," while the manager, Mr. Durward. before rushing into the theatre to quieten and reassure the children, picked up the reeking container and threw it out of. a- window on to a vacant piece of

ground. With the rapidity of an electric wave, the alarm spread through the huddled ro-.vs of children. They were instantly overcome by panic. The situation of the hall does not lend itself to ready discharge;; of an audience. The children immediately made for «i door furthest away from the smoke. A flight of stairs leads from tho hall down to a lane overlooking the JJiver Cart, and in their mad rush for the exit the children knocked each other down. The scene was pathetic, the terror-

stricken children struggled with eacf

other in their attempts to get out first. > Like startled sheep, they flocked to the door, . and when the first batch had tumbled down the stairs they found the door barred.

The onrushing children fell on top of those below, with the result that in a few minutes they were massed 'to a hoighi of fully six feet. Meanwhile the manager and the. attendants did all they could to calm tho children, but their efforts were of little avail, and the situation gradually became worse.

// Heart-Rending Scenes. The news of the tragedy quickly spread, and detachments, of the fire brigade arrived on the scene in response to the call :of "firci ■ Instead of using their hose pipes, the firemen had to break the windows and jppunt ..their ladders to the upper windows to extricate the children.

Policemen and passers-by joined in the ...rescue work, and tho children . were . carried to the roadway. The door facing Lithe'lane was opened, and tho horrified -_i eight.-'of a heaped mass of children presented itself. Many of the little ones were .past all aid, while others moaned and cried in agony. Quickly the children were taken out to the main thoroughfare, where by this time : a large crowd had gathered, many of them phrents, who were calling piteously for their littles ones.

While private cars and ambulance waggons were plying to the Infirmary, some -of the victims were taken to nearby shops, _ .where artificial respiration was applied. -In some cases this proved succesful, although tho children were in a very exhausted condition. Two 3 tramcars were 'cleared by their passengers and commissioned to convey the injured and dying children to the It oval Alexandra Infirmary, which lies about three-quarters of a milo from the cinema. 1 Story of the Rescue Work. Many of the children were related. It v.-as a moving sight to witness the pathetic expressions of tho distracted parents, and tho police had a difficult task in keeping .the way clear for the operatio/is of the rescue workers. Men and women, eager

to find ont- if their children were involved ,'jn the calamity, crushed forward as children. were carried out to tho waiting vehicles, torn as they were between

anxiety to get a glimpse of the little ones .and dread to find that their children were involved. Many mothers became hysterical in the nwful suspense, and now ajid again a heart.rijnding moan indicated that a poor \vom.m had found but lost her little one. Few in t he crowd could refrain from tears, mi touching was tho spectacle as one little body after another was carried from the building. A graphic account of the rescue work v.;is given by the deputy fire-master, Mr. .Wilson, }\hq was in charge of the work. <h« fire master being absent on leave. 'Mr. .says that the firemen were in front of the building two minutes after the alarm was received. Ho states:— " From the Gilmour Street entrance

'dense smoke was curling, and immediately llu; engine pulled tip a number of civilians lushed up and shouted to (he firemen, for CjOil s sake got your smoke helmets—we can t get in through the sinoke. The .cinema s full of children. Passages Packed With Children. " When my men heard about (he child'ren, there was no holding them for smoke lielinets 01 anything else. 'I hev were off the engine in a flash and into the passage. This passage is a fairly lengthy one, and leads fioin Gilmour Street in the cinema hall J It was full of choking smoke from the burning spools. We had a bit of a job getting through, but we managed it,. .."The screen, is at the end of the

.cinema away from (jilmour Street. At each side of the screen there is a passage ' passages go round the screen to a .'stairway of about nine or ten steps lead- ; itig /down to Terrace Walk, which runs along the side of the Kiver Cart. These .passages, wheu T reached them, were packed with children. The celluloid i'times were not very bad there, and the children seemed more dazed (hail frightened to get then, turned and headed buck through the cinema to the Cilmour Street c.ut. " Umber of U,e chihlren had S,r>. llowevci '. ™ found that those ' in were so tightly packed that

they had to bo helped to extricate themselves. They wero of all '■ages, from 18 months to 12 years. Some of the moro badly frightened grabbed at us, and their grip could hardly bo loosened. All you could da was.grab them in your arms and carry them back to the hall. They were everywhere, at the screen end of the hull, up on the stage, and down in the orchestra pit. Somo of them had been so terribly scared that they had actually tried to climb up the screen. " Eventually we cleared the passages and reached the head of the stairway. It was a ghastly sight, arid it was then wo began to appreciate the full horror of the calamity. That stairway ia about ten feet wide, and it was packed with children huddled together in every conceivable attitude. They were as tightly packed as a wall of cement bags. Some of them moaned, others were very still. There was blood about. Legs and arms were intertwined, and bodies were twisted. The whole scene was an appalling tangle."

Mr. Wilson added:—"ln some cases it took two of us working very carefully to get one child out. Tho children were lying in a mass several feet deep, and as we worked down we found it moro and moro difficult to get them out. Some of them had to be left in contorted attitudes until wo could loosen tho mass. We would have had to pull them asunder to get them out. While wo wero thus engaged at the cinema end of the stair, a number of civilians wero similarly engaged at tho Terrace Walk end. Thy had broken a window looking on to tno Walk, got into a side room, and they reached the stairway. They were pulling tho children out of the pile and into the side room, where they passed them through tho window to other people outside.

" In about 20 minutes wo had cleared the stairway outside. The children were

being • lifted into two ambulances, which may have made dozens of trips between the cinema and infirmary. When there was not an ambulance handy the children were"put into ' tramcars. _ private motor cars, and almost any vehicle that would take them quickly to tho hospital. " It seemed to.jne. that in the rush of the children down the stairway some of thern had fallen, and before they had time to get up had been overwhelmed by the frantic children behind, who in turn had fallen. In a moment the block would be impassable, and the terrible pressure would do the rest.

" I learned of a curious point when \re had cleared up at tho hall and returned to the station. One of my officers reported that while he was-in tho hall he had suspected the presence of coal gas. One of the men, Fireman Blair, was taken ill on his return and was. in rather a bad condition. " For some time I was up at tho hospital not long after I came back from the hall, and one of ther doctors there told mo that he suspected that many of the casualties had been caused by gas poisoning. I cannot say that while I was in the hall I noticed any -gas fumes, but it is possible that in tho panic some of tho gas brackets may have been broken."

A dramatic story was told by a ten-year-old girl, Jenny Brown, who was in the cinema with her two sisters Emily, aged live, and May, aged three. She told the reporter that she smelt smoke and that everybody ran for (ho main door! 1 wasn't frightened," Jenny added., I took my wee sister, May, by one hand, and Emily bv the other, and started to follow the crowd rushing to -the door. I lost Emily and it was only then 1 began lo feel frightened. When I got outside with May, 1 started looking for Emily, but a policeman told me that she had been taken to the Infirmary." Little Emily was saved, and was actually met in the street by a man who was going to look for her.