The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-12-08
5000 CASUALTIES
IN HALIFAX BLAST
1000 Killed, 5000 Injured in
Ship Explosion.
RUINS GIVE UP DEAD
The City is Staggered by Losses in
Human Life and Terrible Suffering.
Magnitude of Disaster Grows Hour
Iy.

Halifax, Dec. S.-Five thousand
casualties; 1000 dead, 5000 injured.
This is the official estimate of the
toll exacted in human lives and suf-
fering by the explosion and fires fol-
lowing the collision in the harbor of
the French munitions ship Mont Blanc
and the Belgian relief steamship
Imro
The magnitude of the disaster is
growing hourly. The wave of terror
that swept the city from the hour
I the explosion occurred has subsidized,
and the survivors of the greatest ca
tastrophe ever known on the Atlantic
seacoast are devoting themselves to
relieving the injured, feeding the hum
cry, sheltering the homeless, gather
ing up the dead and appraising rough
ly their property losses.
Smoldering ruins and great piles of
the debris of demolished houses con-
tinued all day to give up their dead
victims. The exact number of those
who persisted in the blast, it was said,
may never be known, as many per-
sons-in some instances entire fami-
lies-were buried beneath the burn
ing ruins of their homes and Gre
mated.
Wreck and ruin are on every side.
Not a single building in the city es-
capped damage Glass was broken,
plaster stripped from the walls and
windows and doors shattered. Bust
ness will be suspended for days; all
the schools have been closed until
after New Years.
The weather became raw and cold
and the, suffering was intense. A
heavy snow-storm set in, and while
this in a measure impeded the work
of relief and rescue it served to aid
the f1remen in fighting the flames,
which still burned fiercely in many
places among the ruins in the devas-
tated district.
Dawn found the city still staggering
under the frightfulness of its losses
in human life, and hundreds who had
stood all night in lines formed at i'm
provised morgues continued their
vigil with alternate expressions of
fears and hopes on their faces. Others
besieged the hospitals for news of the
missing, and meanwhile relief parties
continued their work of succor among
the injured whom they found in the
devastated Richmond and Dartmouth
sections of the city.
Aid from the outside in the form
of tons of supplies gave early evil
dence that fears of food shortage
oI of nif
eminent officials free to direct the
rescue work, in which soldiers, sailors
and police are being assisted by blue
Jackets from an American warship in
the harbor. Special trains bringing
doctors, nurses and medical supplies
arrived from Moneton, Pruro and
Windsor. Other trains have been
sent with injured persons to Windsor
and other places where there are
large hospitals. The special which
Governor Mccall of Massachusetts,
sent from Boston with a large force
of doctors and nurses and supply
Of medical stores has arrived.
Searchers over the fiame-swept area
Of Richmond confined their efforts to
making sure that all the injured were
removed to hospitals. Other organ
lied parties sought out those bodies
that might be identified and rushed
them to the morgues. In this section,
extending from Pier back to Coffin
gen street, not a building was left
standing and here was the greatest
loss of life. Buildings that withstood
the force of the explosion were burn
ed by the fire that swept the district,
and scores of the injured were taken
from the ruins of the railway station,
the refinery of the American Sugar
Refining company. the military gym
nasium and the arena rink, while few,
if any, of the several hundred chill
dren attending, the Richmond school
are known to have escaped.
Every available building is a shell !
ter house or hospital. Everywhere |
people whose homes were intack are
sheltering those whose homes are |
gone. Hundreds of bodies lie in tenn |
porary morgues awaiting recognition |
and burial. Whole families are wiped |
out; parents are left childless and |
children have been made orphans, |