Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-05-06
In Less Than Is Minutes 200
Lives Are Swept Away.
Scores Are Injured ard the Sights
About the Place Are Ghastly.
Many OF Paris Best Society People Are Among
the Dead and Injured.

Paris, May 4.--F'ire broke out at /
r. NJ, Tuesday, in crowded charita-
bic bazaar in the Rue Jean-Goujon,
Paris, at which the Duchess DUES
and other well-known patronesses Were
present. Many people were burned to
death and there was a terrible panic,
during which a large number of per-
sons were injured.
The missing, who are supposed to be
dead, include General Meunier. the
Warehouses de Gallifet, the Duchess
D'Elencon the Countesses De Nun and
st. Pirier, the Warehouses de Flores
the Viscountess Hunol Holstein,
Baroness Mackan, wife of the leader of
the pro-rallists in the Chamber of Dep
uties; and Nine. Morlaunelamon, her
son and four daughters.
One hundred corpses have now been
laid out in the Palais D'L'Industrie. Ii
is believed that another hundred are
beneath the ruins.
The building was erected in the
flimsiest manner, the nudity of the
scaffolding inside being concealed by
tapestry hangings of the most inflam-
.nable material. Moreover there was
only one exit. The bazaar was in full
swing when suddenly about 4 o'clock.
the cry of fire rose in the quarter where
the Kinematograph was being exhb-
tied One of the survivors tells the
CORRESPONDENT of The Associated Press
his experience:
The flames spread with startling rapid
ity through the whole building, which
rumbed like a living furnace, but the up
roar of the confiagration could not deafen
the groanS and cries of the agonized
crowd. II cannot describe the struggle
for life which ensued No words can de-
pict the horror of the scene. 1t seems
as | look back upon it like 4 hideous
nightmare. The whole thing was over
in u minutes. and nothing remained but
the charred and blackened ruins of the
bazaar
The dead are piled in heaps. especially
near the exit. where the charred remains
Were five feet deep, arms. legs and skulls
mingel in ineXtricable confusion. In some
eases only the trunks remained. with no
vestige of clothing on any of the bodies.
The firemen arrived at and a company
of infantry followed to clear the ruins
and search for corpses.
About 20 persons were saved by Pere
Ambrose and Pere Bailly. who helped
them out over the wall of the ladder to
the printing rooms of the newspaper La
croX. The staff of the Hotel Du Palais
saved $50 through barred window over
looking the bazaar. where. while the ho-
tel employees were carrying away the
bars. they saw three persons burned to
death before their eyes.
Policemen. their hands covered with
gloves, have been deputed by the pre-
feet of police to pick out the portions of
remains and to wrap them in pieces OF
cloth, to be transferred in ambulances
to the Palais d Industries The remains
present a horrible spectacle of limbs
burned and twisted On all sides can be
seen stretchers piled with mutiated
corpses, skulls split open and brains ex-
uding.
just behind heap of corpses lies alone
the body of woman. The face down
ward, the head burned, the brain exposed.
ana from the empty socket of the right
eye the brains are slowly oozing. The
arms and legs We're burned off.
little further off is the body Of an
other woman, nude, the entrails protrud-
ing and the head missing. 1t is a CHASTITY
sight.
The Duchess d'Alencon, sister of the
Austrian Empress. is among the injured
the list of whom includes the Duchess
Dues, the Comtesse Savignia, and Mile
De In Boulaye.
In the streets adjacent to the bazaar
were long lines of sumptuous equipages.
Most of these returned empty; their
owners We're dead The others were seen
moving off with occupants injured in
head or limb and in many eases with
faces streaming with blood. The search
In the debris will continue all night
1t appears that the fire ORIGINATED on
the LETT side of the bazaar. The illumi
mating apparatus of the kinematograph
exploded and set fire to the Turkish cur
tains and hangings. In q few moments
the flames spread along the whole side
of the bazaar. The crowd near the main
embraces We're able to escape; but thos
ut the other end not knowing of the
doors reserved for the employees, found
themselve hemmed in, as in a cu de sac
As the fire spread. the pressure on the
right side. where there were no exits,
kept steadily increasing. Here n num-
Der of victims were crushed to death
Suddenly above the roar of the flames
were heard cries of terror and despair
and appeals for help from the cul de sac
end, where the unfortunates We're being
burned alive. The fire made furious
Roadway.
liowls of despair arose outside in the
Avenue Montaigne. the Place Alma and
the Rue Francois. adjacent streets. In
Az these thoroughfares there was a flight
OF maddened people, mostly women with
out skirts petticoats or hats. their feet
naked and their clothing either burned
off or torn Off Every available fiacre
was taken by assault.
The whole of the highest society in
Paris Is in horrible pell-mell prey to
the deepest despair. husbands seeking
and calling for wives. and fathers seek
Ing and calling for daughters
Words would fail to describe the horro,
Of the scene at the Palais d'I Industries
where the bodies are exposed on the side
next to the Avenue Danton in n portion
OF the building now in course OF demoli.
ton Here in long room, rudely COW
Citu WIN iouSH pisiilkS ana sheet :
hastily spread over planks. the bodies rs
they arrive from the ambulances are h..
ing placed in three long rows
This is death by fire with all its horror,
: nouies completely nude limbs twisted g.
me WRITINGS Of agony. some still havine
snrsus OF clothing which assist recosni.
zanre ~ spite of the horrible dsdrGre
ment, bones visible through fire-eate
~ sn some merely skeletons or grinnina
shulls biaekened with smoke
AT $50 F. NJ, only six bodies have beer