TERRIBLE FIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20853, 11 July 1939, Page 8

TERRIBLE FIRE

EXPLOSION IN SPAIN MANY DEAD OR DYING PLIGHT OF SURVIVORS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received July 11, 3.25 p.m.) LONDON, July 10 The British United Press correspondent in Penaranda de Bracamonte, where a powder magazine exploded, says the town is a desolated, smoking ruin, and there is a stream of corpses and debris for hundreds of yards around. There are 150 dead and 1300 injured. Those made homeless rushed to Salamanca, where temporary hospitals have been installed. General Franco sent £SOOO for the relief of distress. The majority of the citizens were cooking their Sunday dinners when the explosion occurred, hence there were numerous lires. With a roar like an earthquake ceilings of houses collapsed, amid the cries of the dying. Fourmills and shoe factories, which formed the main industries, are still burning. Human and animal bodies are scattered amid household goods, utensils and bedding. Only from twenty to thirty dwellings are standing of a town which boused 5000 people. Lorry-loads of fugitives, clutching odds and ends of furniture and weeping hopelessly, followed each other to Salamanca. The heat could be felt miles away. Many of the rescuers were severely burned.