The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-12-20 00:00:00

THE FIRE AT VIENNA.

GREAT Lus-8 OF LIFE.

801IDAY Eventio.—The interment of the victims of
the greet fire commenced thie moruing. A glelit
01.1131b0r of people joiner 1 the processions on the way
to the cemetery. The farewell scenes at graves were
of the most painful description. The funerals of those
who csanot be buried by their own friends will take
pla,:e on Monday morning.
ibis evening an officiel list states that the number
of missing is 917. dhe latest accounts by survivors
strengthen previ ,u 5 rep,.r:s of incredible careleesneas,
especially in not opening the means of exit.
Here dance., the manager of the theatre, states with
regard to the bra. blind not being et down, he
remarken that the back of the stage first imams
ignited, and the whole of the scenery was ablaze before
the man who.. duty it wise to attend to the blind had
Lime to make it work.
The following terrible narrative proves the unpin.-
nese of the tirem so. The writer id Frail-In Feudal,
who 104 fath..r, mother, sister, and sister's firmed :
" Suddenly fiam ot burst through the curtain, and,
sprawling along the coling, seemed at once to leap up
to the second gallery. Then the gee went out, and
there was a sudden darkoess. te five kept close
together, feeling our way forward tall we reached the
nip of the 'votress.. Hera the smoke was den es, in 1
the crowdiog moat terrible. Shrieks and tries were
heard .ox sit sue.. There was no moving forwards.
Sec .nds parsed, then minutes—it seem ..1 an eternity.
People fell dowi,, c tidied and h.liless. Keliug
euffo.nted and rim .st senseless, I slid, I do nit know
h iw, with other, down the staircase. I felt come
current of fresh air. I saw on the landing •
vast room with a chandelier. A gentleman wits
there. My relit.o.e were all lost. I called to
them, but all inks of ag ny only answered me.
I tried to break the windows, but foiled, sof the
gentleman kicked them out Revived by th. fresh
sir, I went back, and agtin called to my Limn:ls.
I struck some mttches that the gentleman had given
ms, but they woul I not bun. Feeling about, I lucid
nothing but a confusion of heads, arms, and feet. I
tried to pull them out, but it was imp osible. I then
went back into the room, where etivetal persons had
gathered, and saw through a window a numb:r of the
fire brigade and police. We called out 'Give help on
the stairca-e--hundreds are suffocating. Bring lights;
a torchlight will save all l' Ti e police shouted back
'AU are saved: there is nobody in the theatre.' I
screamed ' It is untrue, hundreds are alive; bring
torches,' A fireman then began to direct the hose. I
again called out ' It is useless, bring a torch; you ca
rosette hundreds who are suffocating.' He answered
angrily' Be silent, there is nobody there, don't makes
row; you all can be rescued; the jumping sheens will
soon arrive.' I a4ain cried to ham trial I had seen
them, tittedreds of them, dying. It wai useless. I
returned to the stair.. I again tried to pull out bodies,
and could hear dying groans. The smoke became
insupportable. I returned to the window. After
many mioutes' waitiog I prepared to jump, when at
last the appa.atus arrived, and I wag the first to leap
down. I again preyed ttem to send men with t itches
up the 'lair,;' but nobody listened or paid attentiou.
They quietly took my name and that was aL" Other
narratives fully hear out the statement of this p es'
girl. In one Cini a man, hsviug saved Mandl,
ieturned, and succeeded iu briuging friends down over
the dead heaped on the stairs. There can be no
doubt whatever that if the police arid firemen had, on
first arriving, made their way up the stairs with lights,
breaking the windows ti let in air, they would have
gavel scores, if not hundreds.