The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-12-16
FHIgHTFBL CALAMITY,
Burning of the Ring Theater, i'm
Vienna.

Vienna.
Theburning Of the Ring Theater, at Vienna,
and tiB loss of nearly 700 lives, is one Of the
most epalling calamities of modern times:
Ihe1re originated on the stage. The ctirtain
was sill down at the time. The precise manner
in Wfch it started is not known. Some of those
who ere on the stage at the time, and who
escapd, say that the fire was caused by the
dropping of an oil-lanlp among the scenery.
Otherslssert that the fire came up from the
enginetoorn, and Was generated by the engine
below he stage, which was supplying the theas
ter viii electric lights: However it Hasj whsh
the flames made theif appearance they did SO SO
sudddly and we're III such alarming proportions
as to hrow the stage people into an irstanta-
neousind thorough panic. The stage had but
one eIt to the street; and for this narrow place
of egsss the entire 400 rushed. The hames
were retween the curtain and this door, and
this act was the cause which prevented any
One tying to escape to the body of the house.
No ole on the stage was bold enough to face
the flames in that direction, and so the great
audience had no one to duly notify them of the
terrible Danger from which most of them might
have esciped, had they been warned in time.
At the sage exit the actors got jammed and
the doc was literally plugged up with human
bodies. md it is believed that most of the num-
Der wereburned to death.
During all this time the flames were having
it all their own way among the finder on the
stage Thae was In the theater an iron car4
tain, which when down, completely severed the
stage from the audience. This iron Curtain
was tip; aid in the panic on the stage was for
gotten Or cut off FROM appt6ach by the flames,
When th fire behind the drop becaris great
enough t, be seen through the painted fabric By
the audince, they naturally supposed it the re-
suit of the stage experiment with calcium to be
used duing tAe ballet, and paid no further at
tention to it. The flames attacked the drop
curtain from III points simultaneously, and il
seemed to instantly disappear and the whole
auditorium Tas in thoughts time in the
complete grsp of the fire, which spread like
one vast shet of lightning in hurricane.
What followed is indescribable. The people
became dmented and fell upon one another
like wild beasts. Some few got into the pas.
cages. bntthe hall was dark. Both gas and this
electric lights were cut off. In the midst of all
this terror, the noise of terrible explosion
showed thai the gas tank had burst; and
this time tie flames burst through the root
and throughmost of the windows, and the Ell
tirs space bdween the walls of the large build;
ing was Ikea vast furnace in white heat, with
living human bodies for Goals.
The sight attracted the whole town to the scene
and thoughtful people took thitller clothes,
rope, ladders and axes. The great Turner's
Ere brigade was soon ut the theater and as
sumed charge of the hfe-saving operations.
By actual count it was ten minutes from the
time the fire had possession of the auditorium
| before q single life vas saved by outside as
sistance, and during all this time the
people within the ftilnace were either burning
Up or tamplng ole another to death. Men
and women, craZed with heat and demented
with the prospect before them, destroyed
themselves by leapng from the front seats of
the galleries into the seething abyss below.
Up to this time njne escaped except the few
who got from th3stage, the fewer who man.
| aged to stumble out through the darkened
passage-ways fom the pit to the street. and
the few who dropped from the windows of
the first floor lbove the pit into the street. The
| Turner's began at once knocking in the walls
around the exits and dragging out the bodies
piled thereby. In this way they managed to save
| several lives, but the flames soon drove thein
swayfrom the walls. The sturdy fellows thet
organized blanket service and invited those
at the windows on the high first floor to Jump;
Fifty person, answered the invitations and the
Turner's caught every one of the entire fifty in
outstretche( blankets and saved them without
injury. TEere were no windows in the street
walls hghei than this first floor and it is hardly
matter Of doubt that every occupant of the
| galleries WIS burned to death.
When TIL fiftieth person had been rescued by
the blanke service the whole building was q
mass of wbte fire, so hot that no near approach
was possible. After that no human being got
outside thewalls, and the assembled crowds,
vast in number, were compelled to stand
around aid witness the most appalling and
heart-rendng scene of modern times. Bodies
could be sen falling from the upper floors into
the whitefire below-some still and limp, as il
lifeless, others in the widest movements of ag.
ony. One was seen as if plunged from the
highest part of the house. 1t was that of 9
man, and he fell headforemost, both armt
crushed under the face.
A Visnna dispatch of the 9th inst. says
Researches show that the upper gallery mus
have fallen into the pit, where the only remains
found are small fragments of bones. Beyond ;
doubt 500 gallery tickets had been issued. Only
100 Of these are known to have jumped from
windows and competent judges fear the los
of life will be found to be fully 700.