69 CHILDREN KILLED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17147, 2 January 1930, Page 7

69 CHILDREN KILLED

A NEW YEAR TRAGEDY TIRE IN THEATRE SUFFOCATED BY FUMES. (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) LONDON, Dec. 31. There was a shocking cinema fire at Paisley. Sixty-nine are already certified dead, including many children, and tho casualty list is still growing. Two hundred were sent to hospital. Tho cinema was crowded with children, when smoke, was scon pouring out of the windows. Tho tire brigade ran up its bidders and there was a wild scramble for the doors. The firemen pulled out the children from doors and windows. Many children were overcome and suffocated by the fumes and many were trampled uuun. me building was surrounded by frantic parents and there was a Huge crowd, as the theatre is in tho centre of the city. All the traffic was stopped. Heart-rending scenes were enacted at the infirmary by distracted mothers. Identification is stuwly proceeding. it was a special children’s Hogmanay performance and was held at the Glen cinema in the heart of Paisley. It was crowded out by 1500, whose ages ranged from infancy to 14 years. The children, seeing the hail Jill with smoke, and not knowing the cause thereof, but fearing the worst, attempted to escape by trying to reach the exit facing them at the rear of the building. Beyond the exit was a flight of eight steps and it only needed one or two to lose their footing and the result was the worst tragedy of its kind the country has ever known. There was a secondary tragedy awaiting the children tilling the balcony. Again somebody lost a foothold and those behind came tumbling down, until they were piled six to eight deep. Thereafter a sombre story of slow asphyxiation followed, for nobody lost his or her life through burning. BUILDING NOT IGNITED.

The building itself was not ignited, but the children were not to know. The operator had shown one film, which he rewound and placed in the container. He heard a hissing sound and saw smoke. He picked up the container, hoping to get it outside the building, but he only reached the vestibule, shouting for the manager. The latter took the box and cast it through a side door to a vacant allotment. In that short space of time, the children saw the smoke. When the manager returned to tho auditorium, all was pandemonium. Already children were heaped breast high beyond the door leading to the exit. lie opened another on the other side of the building, but the smoke terrified the children and they refused for a long time to move.. A constable from the street, saw a tumbling cascade of children. A civilian passing heard the policeman’s shout “For God’s sake come and help.” Together they tried to disentangle the heaped-up mites and passed them out singly as extricated. The policemen gave" his baton to the civilian, telling him to break the windows and let in rescuers. Ladders were brought and other rescuers climbed to -the upper storey windows and thus reached the balcony and dropped down to the ground floor, where they found children in heaps at the bottom of the stairs. Others were lying still under the seats. Many must have been dead even then, because the fumes choked the rescuers.

A general summons was circulated for medical and nursing services, and the police stopped ears, lorries and traincurs and turned out the passengers, placing in them children alive and dead, and took them to the hospital, where the nurses were entertaining patients at a special Hogmanay tea. * The festivities were rudely I,reken off. As the stream of victims began to arrive some of the nurses, appalled at the magnitude of the din aster, were overcome and fainted. Those children already dead were taken below to the basement to make room for the living. A doctor living close to the cinema organised a firstaid station in a factory yard. Thither some scores were at first taken. Ihe doctor called for women volunteers and hurriedly instructed them in artificial respiration.

mad with terror A revised list of casualties shows fill children dead and 157 injured. A grim coincidence was that the film showing when the disaster occuxred was entitled “The Crowd.” Seven doctors confirm the growing impression that most of the deaths were due to gas poisoning. The chief officer of the brigade reports that many gas brackets were broken, apparently by children trying to climb over each 'other and clinging to the brackets. The exceptional crowd of children was duo to the fact that the performance was a special Now Year treat, the children being admitted for three half pence. Distressing details have accumulated hourly. One baby of 18 months found lying on a pile was claimed bv different women. Mothers were so hysterical that they identified bodies which had previously been identified by other parents. Another fireman says that children who were alive seemed to be mad with terror. One boy was jammed in a corner and hemmed in by bodies. He was not looking at the dead children but upwards all the time, whimpering and wringing his hands as though trying to ward off some horror. Fortunately, apart from the stark tragedy, there are many stones of heroism. One young man alone rescued 18.

CAUSED BY PANIC NO DAMAGE BY FIRE A GHASTLY SPECTACLE (Received Jan. 2, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 1. The nation is shocked by the Paisley cinema disaster, which was apparently caused when someone shouted 'lore. Gas brackets were broken in tbe children's wild scramble. Many rescuers dodare emphatically that the hall was thick with coal gas fumes and smoke. It is revealed also that a few died of injuries. Extensive scratching of knees and faces during the panic showed Urn acute hysteria. Three children of one family perished Had the children remained calm, and made an orderly use of the various exits the tragedy would have been averted, for the building was totally undamaged by fire. Quite a number of children were trampled to death, Firernaster Wilson, in a statement,

says the children were everywhere, some behind the screen, and some in the orchestra pit. The stairways were a ghastly sight. About 10ft wide, they were crowded with children, huddled in every conceivable position, and packed as tightly as a wall of cement. The bodies of some were twisted, and others were just moaning. A relief fund lias been opened, the subscriptions already totalling £IOOO.

CITY IN MOURNING CELEBRATIONS CANCELLED (Received January 2, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 1. Paisley to-day is in mourning. Social events and New 't ear’s Day celebrations have been cancelled. Men and women are going about their duties with grave faces, and children are talking in hushed voices. There were tragic scenes outside the mortuary, where hundreds of men and women, parents of dead children, waited for hours in pouring rain, some so poorly clad that they used newspapers, to keep off the rain. At the infirmary, the doctors and nursing staff worked throughout the night, tending the little ones, many of whom are suffering from shock. Their efforts are likely to bo successful for of 37 patients it is hoped that 12 will ho able to go home to-night. The Prime Minister sent a message to the Provost of Paisley expressing the country’s sonow at the tragedy.