The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-04

to hospitals had not been detern erick F. Pardee, chief liberal \ member of Parliament from Nc 1t is feared they have lost their l It has been established that the | first burst of flame in the reading room of the House of Commons was preceded by at least one explosion and probably by two. The force of the concussiOn was so severe that per sons standing some distance away were hurled to the floor. A rigid in- vestigation to determine the cause of the fire already has been undertaken by the dominion authorities The flames spread with such amaz- ing rapidity that the Ottawa fire bri- gade was utterly helpless to cope with 1 them. Aid was sent from Montreal on
 a. special train, but at 1 o'clock this
 morning the fire was still raging.
 The loss cannot be estimated in
 money. The building was valued at about s5000,000. But the contents are
 of inestimable value. There was no in- surance.
 MAY SAVE LIBRARY
 At midnight the Commons and Sen ate chambers had been destroyed and | as the great clock boomed out the hour 1 flames were swirling up the magnifi-
 cent tower and licking their way to
 it's top. The parliamentary library at
 the rear probably will be saved Sol
 diers were assigned to carry out it's contents
 1 Members of the Parliament, specta- i tors in. the gallery of the lower house. government employees and others who
 were in the building narrowly escaped death orainjury. Within few minutes
 after the fire began corridors were filled with smoke and at many points 1 walls of flame barred progress. There 1 were many doors to the great building, but since the outbreak of the war all 1 except the main portals have been 1 closed to safeguard the legislators. 1 This preeaution made escape more diff ficult and probably was responsible for l the deaths of Mme Brayy of Montreal | and Mme Morin of Beauce, in one.. of | the rooms of the speakers suit. ! Mime. Sevingy saved her two chil
 dren by dropping them into d fire mans safety net and then leaped to safety herself. Another of her guests, Mime. Dussault, saved herself in the same way.
 l Among those severely burned was Minister of Agriculture Burrell. who
 fell unconscious after plunging through
 a curtain of fire and groping his way
 along a smoke filled corridor
 BORDEN IS SAFE
 Sir Robert Borden, the Canadian pre- mier, who was in the building, escaped
 safely, but Martin Burrell. minister of
 agriculture, was severely burned about
 the head, and Dr. Michael Clark, mem
 Der for Red Deer, was burned about | the hands Many of the legislators,
 who were in the building, experienced
 great difficulty in groping their way l through smoke filled corridors. Several | fled through windows and down lad l ders to the street The entire fire fighting equipment of Ottawa was unable to cope with
 the flames and Mayor Martin of Mon l treal, member of Parliament, at 10 1 o'clock ordered the Montreal fire bri- | gade to this city Half an hour after
 the fire was discovered the glass roof
 over the commons chamber fell and it 1 appeared that the handsome Gothic l structure was doomed.
 When Speaker Sevigny took the chair and opened the session of the house l at s o'clock only about 50 members were in their seats. A discussion relat- | ing to fisheries was proceeding when ] a messenger rushed into the room | shouting, Fire! Run for your lives.' l The members were driven back by
 smoke and flames when they sought an exit through the two main doors.
 SPECTATORS STAMPEDE 1 Spectators in the gallery, panic
 stricken, stampeded for the exits at the
 same time.
 i Minister of Agriculture Burrell was | overcome as he made his way through l the thickest of the smoke and fell just 1 in front of the pestoffice. He was | picked up by Robert Rogers, minister 1 of public works; J. O. Read, minister 1 of customs, and Pierre Blondin min 1 fster of state. It was found that while | his injuries were serious, he will re-
 cover.
 1 MT. Burrell had been working in his
 
 l nnD X1,C CVS IIINDAT