LATER DETAILS.

Colonist, Volume L, Issue 12184, 6 March 1908, Page 3

LATER DETAILS.

A TERRIBLE SCEINE. 152 BODIES RECOVERED. Children trying to retrace their steps encountered tbe ,' flames, wbicb destroyed the class rooms. A few minutes' later the lower floor collapsed, precipitating scoies to the basement. The teachers struggled bravely, but were helpless. Mine of them were hurt. Hundreds of frantic parents assembled, and workmen from the factories came to assist. A man trying to drag his daughter from a pile of children wedged in a doorway pulled her arm out of the socket. Several children jumping from the third storey were instantly killed, others being caught m tbe arms of spectators, though badly hurt. Numbers were rescued through windows at the back of the building, and fire escapes rescued some from the upper windows,£but the flames sweeping up tbe staircase, soon enveloped the building beyond control. Firemen played the hose "on children piled up in front of the doorway, trying to extricate a few. Even this was soon impossible. There was a fearful stench from the burning flesh. The police U3ed force to keep the distracted parents back. Received March 5, 11.55 p.m. Most of the dead came from the first and second floors. A number on tine third floor escaped when the floor collapsed. The firemen say the children were writbing in heaps in the basement until tbe roof fell. 'The fire raged for two hours. When tbe ruins were explored many charred bodies were discovered. Limb and skulls detached at the slightest touch. Many were only identified by pocket trinkets.- The smoke asphyxiated most ofHho victims. The school was old and badly constructed. When the front exit became blocked the children were hopelessly entrapped. One hundred and n'ftyrtwo bodies have been recovered and it is feared that many more perished. An overheated furnace caused the fire. 3 The firemen's ladders ouly reached to the third storey. Wnen the alarm sounded, the children laughed, thiuking it a false alram. The teachers directed them to sit quietly. Directly tie smoke appeared the children stampeded, and found the stairs leading to tbe hall packed like sardines, the children lying on top of each other. A few escaped by iunoing over them. A merchant named Upton saved 18.