THE THEATRE DISASTER.

Colonist, Volume XLVI, Issue 10916, 6 January 1904, Page 3

THE THEATRE DISASTER.

! CAUSES OF THE FIRE. New York, January 4. I At tbe inquest on the victims of the fire at the Iroqouis Theatre, cvi- ! dence showed that the draught from the doors, which were opened behind the stage, blew down a fan screen containing a number of incandescent lights. The fan screen fell with a crash like an explosion, and the heat | from the flood of lights on thefscreen I ignited the flimsy borders jjand scenery. Then 75,000 feet of boiled Manila rope used in suspending 180 drop scenes caught fire. The asbestos curtain had not been arranged to drop quickly. It hung on an endless ropej and was lowered with difficulty. i It was obstructed in its descent by the steel reflector, not by the aerial wire reflector, which had been carelessly left to itself, and swung out of its niche near fthe proscenium arch.