PHILIPPAR DISASTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21649, 20 May 1932, Page 7

PHILIPPAR DISASTER

OVER NINETY MISSING START OF THE FIRE PASSENGER’S DRAMATIC STORY (United Press Association.) (By Klectric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, May 18. The Otranto and the Kaisar-I-Hind wirelessed that none of the Georges Philippar’s survivors was aboard. Reports reaching Paris indicate that approximately 100 passengers are not accounted for, including Dr Sze. An Aden message says that the Philippar is still burning. A dramatic story of how the alarm was raised was told by Madame Valentin. The fire started in her cabin. She had been on deck, returning at 2 o’clock in the morning. The cabin lights went out, and she rang for the steward, but the switch dropped off into her hand. The ends of the wires felt hot. She rushed to call the officer of the watch. When she returned to the cabin she heard a crackling inside the wall, and the cabin was soon filled with smoke. Flames burst through the walls of the adjacent cabins. Some of the passengers must have been trapped in the flames, which spread with amazing rapidity. It is revealed that the music and the gaiety of the dancers prevented most of the passengers from hearing the fire alarm. The lost of valuable minutes thus added to the difficulties of escape. An epic story is told of a brave stewardess named Helbut, . who vainly darted into burning cabins to find the parents of a badly burned girl of 12, who was afterwards lowered into a boat, and died en route to the Mahsud. The stewardess later succoured two burned men all the way to Aden, and then she herself collapsed from shock and exposure. RAPID SPREAD OF FIRE PASSENGERS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN TRAPPED. . LONDON, May 18. The arrival of the Andre Le Bon at Djibouti (French Somaliland), with survivors, including Captain Vicq, enabled the Messageries Maritimes to state that there were altogether 769 passengers and crew aboard the Philippar. Thus far 678 are accounted for, therefore 91 are missing. ' ' ~ It is now reported that Dr Sze disembarked at Hong Kong. Those missing include M. Albert Londres, a well-known •Paris journalist, and also the daughter and son-in-law of the Chief Justice of Indo-Chiua. Mesdaines Vincente and Bouvier are convinced, that’ many first class passengers were burned to death. They, discovered that their own escape was cut off when the last boat left without them. “ We screamed, but the roar of the flames drowned our voices, so we rushed to the bridge and clanged the ship’s bell until a boat put back and rescued us through a porthole near , the water’s edge.” A passenger named Braulfc helped to rescue 80 children aboard. , He thinks that nearly all were saved. He saw Alvis Wendling Jump into the sea with three-year-old Jacquot Bernard in his arms. The Sovietskaia picked up both. Wendling is now fathering the child, who cries for his missing mother, but will not leave his rescuer for women who wish to take care of him. All accounts emphasise the amazing rapidity with which the fire spread. There is no explanation as to why it could not have been isolated.