A GHASTLY HOLOCAUST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7661, 17 January 1901, Page 2

A GHASTLY HOLOCAUST.

V,\-y,

COLLAPSE- OF A ROOF. '

FOOTBALL SPECTATORS PLUNGED

V^NTO MOLTEN GLASS

(Daily Jffatl.) " SAN PRAKCISCO, Nov. 30. " While some twenty thousand people "Were watching a football match between the Stanford and Berkeley University teams yesterday afternoon several "huodired men and boys climbed on the iron roof oithe San Francisco Glass Works tcr get a' : free view of the game.

Suddenly the roof • collapsed, and precipitated fully a hundred of them into the great furnaces filled with, molten- glass,, 45ft below. Twelve were ahnostinstantly killed, and tfiree have since died. In. addition, eighty were badly injured, .several', it is feared, fatally.

The scenes attending the disaster werei horrible to witness. Many of the •victims c£i.ught at the rafters and girders as they fell, and clung desperately, shrieking, for assistance. One by one, hoiwever, they dropped imto the fiery furnaces, .whiohl were literally covered with writhing bodies. The exterior heat from these furnaces is said to have been 500deg. Fahri, and the situation was rendered more ihorrible by the fact that the sudden • derangement of the furnace machinery sent a stream) of burning oil over, the bodies of the- victims;, and those who were not killed outright were speedily wreathed in flames. ' ~ The people on top climbed^uickly away, their wounds as best they could. tnmediately after the accident the employees of the works and others forced their way 'into the building and began the work of rescue.

The fearful smoke from thj^burndng clothing, tie smell of roasting fteflAand the suffering, shrieking victims caiuaM^several to faint away. a" The rescuers raked the half-cremated bodies from the furnaces -with long iron pokers which are used for testing the glass. An ey.e-witness says: — "Most of those under the pile of struggling humanity were dead (long before we reached them, and, as the hpoks could not hold the burning clothing, it was difficult to get the bodies away from the flames. We stood besidie ia yeritable hell, and saw men roasting to death before our verpeyes. It was a terrifying expereince." The scene after the tiisaster was like a battlefield, the place was strewn with men and boys with broken limbs, fractured skulls, and burned bodies. Every available physician was pressed into service, wihdle carriages, coachas, and! other private vehicles .conveyed the victims to the hospitals. A large force: of police had to be summoned to keep the frenzied mob back from. the. building. : • Shortly before the disaster occurred the superintendent of the works sent am urgent call to the police headquarters for assistance to olear the people from the "roof, but tthe police arrived too late.