HOLOCAUST IN MONTREAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12651, 11 January 1927, Page 7

HOLOCAUST IN MONTREAL

OVER NINETY KILLED IN MOVIE THEATRE FIRE CHILDREN WEDGED ON STAIRS JTTLE HARM DONE BY FLAMES, BUT PANIC SEIZED THE PEOPLE By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. Australian and New Zealand Cable Association. (Received January io, 5.5 p.m.) MONTREAL, January 9. Seventy-seven lives were lost during the destruction by fire of the Laurier Picture Theatre. The fatalities were principally the result of a frenzied rush by the audience when the fire was discovered. Most of the dead children were found to have been crushed or suffocated in the stampede. The theatre was filled with 1100 persons, mostly juveniles. Little damage was done by the flames, which were quickly extinguished by the firemen. The stairway from the balcony was a death-trap. It was here that the children were jammed and crushed at the turning. Firemen cut a hole in the street wall to get at the bodies. All were victims of the stampede, and ten minutes encompassed the whole tragedy. The boys and girls in the van of the stampeding mob from the balcony were pressed on suddenly from the rear. This caused them to stumble and fall. In an instant panic seized those in the rear, and there was shoving and scrambling. Then bovs and girls were piled in alieap, and a minute or two proved . sufficient for the stairway to become a solid, suffocating, groaning, shrieking, dying mass. Firemen and police were instantly on the spot, and many children were rescued from the jam. Holes were cut through the wooden stairs directly- under the jam of bodies, and another hole was cut in the wall. Nearly all the children pulled out from the stairway were dead.

GREATEST TRAGEDY OF THE KIND IN CANADA’S HISTORY

(Received January 10, 9.5 p.m.) MONTREAL, January 10.

ents were seeking their offspring, not knowing whether they were dead or aliveSURVIVOR TELLS STORY. A 10-year-old survivor related: “I was standing in the gallery while a funny picture was being shown. Everyone was laughing. Suddenly I heard someone yell ‘Fire!’ and people began to scream. They all started rushing downstairs. Evoryone piled on top of each other. I climbed over, and a boy grasped my foot and tried to pull himself from the others. I struggled, and my shoe came off.” The number of deaths in this fire makes it the greatest tragedy qf its kind in Canada’s history. SOME FAMILIES LOST THREE CHILDREN (Received January 10, 10.30 p.m.) The .cinema proprietor, Amcen Lawrand, and three employees of the theatre have been detained for the inquest to-day. Some families lost three children. The provincial laws prohibit children under 1C from gaining admittance to a cinema unless special permission is given for children’s shows.

Ninety-six lives were lost. Most of them were French-Canadian children under 16 years of age. The actual fire was negligible. The deaths were, due mainly to trampling, coupled with asphyxiation by smoke. The victims struggled to escape through a narrow stairway. Scenes of terror ■were witnessed as parents battled with the police and the firemen,, attempting to enter the theatre. \

Seventy-three of the dead have been identified.

FIREMEN BREAK THE WALL

Women and children were lodged so lightly at the foot of the stairway that the firemen were forced to break a hole in the wall to relieve the pressure, and then form a human chain and pass out the victims.

One of the children was so firmly ■wedged that 20 men were unable to extricate him from the mass of bodies. Priests hurried to the scene and administered the last rites. All the available doctors assisted in treating the victims, many of whom were mangled beyond recognition.' Harrowing scenes were enacted at the morgue, where grief-crazed par-