CITY DESTROYED

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1934, Page 5

CITY DESTROYED

DISASTROUS FIRE IN JAPAN 500 ESTIMATED CASUALTIES 150,000 PERSONS HOMELESS IMPOSSIBILITY OF RESCUE STRONG GALE FANS FLAMES By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 11 p.m. Tokio, March 21. An all-night fire fanned by a heavy gale destroyed the city of Hakodate, with the exception of the foreign consulates, which are on a hillside. Police, telephone and other municipal buildings and the entire business district, as well as 20,000 homes were burned, rendering homeless 150,000 people who are taking refuge in the hills in bitter weather and suffering from hunger.

It is officially announced that the dead, dying and injured number 500. All communications with the city have been severed and ships’ radio sets are acting as substitutes for telephones and telegraphs. • The fire is subsiding but 80 per cent, of the city has been destroyed. It is intensely cold and the fire brigades are entirely helpless.

It is impossible to dispatch rescue vessels from Aomori because of the high wind.

The timber market at Osaka is soaring. The army and navy are rushing food, blankets and medical supplies to the scene of the catastrophe. The severed communications have been partially restored.

Hakodate is a city of about 197,000 inhabitants on a peninsula in the Strait of Tsugaru. The chief port of Yezo, it is built partly on the inner slope of a Gib-raltar-like hill 1700 feet in height, which dominates the strait, and partly on a low, sandy peninsula connecting the hili with the main island. It has a magnificent .harbour and is one of the open ports of Japan. Matches are manufactured and there are extensive fisheries.