XMAS TRAGEDIES

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12022, 27 December 1924, Page 5

XMAS TRAGEDIES

DAM BURSTS IN VIRGINIA MANY PEOPLE DROWNED; OTHERS BLINDED BY CHEMICALS HOUSES CARRIED AWAY, By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright, Reuter’s Telegram. (Received December 26, 8.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 25. It is reported from Abingdon, in Virginia, that 23 persons were killed and many others injured through the breaking of a dam on the Holston river. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received December 26, 8.16 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 25. Another account says that 12 people were drowned at Parkmartown, in Virginia, on Christmas Eve, and 28 others are seriously ill. All emergency dam stemming the Holston river for the purpose of supplying water for the local chemical works Broke, and the waters flooded down and carried away hundreds of houses down stream, drowning those people who were caught unawares. Others were seriously blinded, owing to the water being polluted by allali muck from the chemical works CROWDED SCHOOL BURNED CANDLE IGNITES CHRISTMAS TREE. THIRTY-SIX DEATHS. Another disaster involving the loss of a large number of lives occurred in a section of the country far from Virginia. Thirty-six men, women and children were burned to death and 40 others were so seriously injured that few of them are expected to recover in a fire which destroyed a country school at Hobart (or Hobbswitch), in Oklahoma. A Christmas Eve entertainment war in progress, and it is believed that a lighted candle on a Christmas tree started the fixe The extremely cold weather which has been gripping the country everywhere had frozen the water supply, making the efforts of the fire fighters unavailing. The attempts of parents and children to crowd out from the burning building caused the narrow exists to be congested, and many people were trampled and crushed to death before being burned. THE JOHNSTOUN DISASTER..

A disaster similar to that on the Holston river, hut one of much greater magnitude, overtook Johnstoun, in Pennsylvania, in 1889, when a reservoir burst and a mass of water rushed four miles down a valley. For a disI fiance of about 12 miles round Johnsthe flood swept out towns and villages, destroying all the bridges, railways and factories. A great mass of floating wreckage, stopped by a stone bridge took fire, and albout 500 persons, hurled on the burning mass, perished l . Hie estimated death-roll was 6000.