New Britain herald., 1929-02-22
DESCRIBES ANGUISH
DURING TUBE BLAZE
Continued from First Page)

belched into the car.
Rudolph and l were on the third
car OF the train and as afterwards
learned, the roadbed covered with
grease and oil. was on fire. The
train had progressed over the spot
until the third car was resting right
over the flames.
THE first thing we knew. there
were two explosions, one not SO loud
and the other like q rifle shot right
near our ears. These we're evident
ly the fuses blowing out. 1mmedi-
ately the insulation beneath the car
caught fire.
I'VE were standing on the rear
platform of the rear car on the trip
and the train was just damned with
people. When the guard opened the
door. the people In the car became
nervous. Then a man. losing his
head. put his fist through a window
in the door and the smoke began
TO pour in. Something had gone
wrong with the mechanism and all
the doors were locked. We couldn't
move.
Suddenly the women began to
scream. The air became dense. The
smoke was thick like a blanket. l
had two handkerchief pressed to
my nose and mouth but this didn't
stop the smoke from getting at
NE.
1.-THE conduct Of most Of the
people in the car was admirable. All
Of the men, with few exceptions,
started to help the women. None Of
US thought at first that 1t was seri-
Gus. Then when the car started to
fill with smoke and the lights went
out. the women started to get panic
stricken. A man jumped on the
back Of a seat and started to scream
while trying to get up the car like
a monkey.
Some man caught him as he
made a leap and pulled him down.
He started to fight and this fellow
let him have one on his chin. He
had to do this or everyone would
have gone crazy.
caught hold Of my sleeve and pray
ed to me to take care Of her. / was
choking and couldn't seem to get
my breath. l tore at my collar be-
cause l couldn't breathe. The wom-
en- started to take their coats off.
Fur coats, bags. pocketbooks and
everything were thrown on the
floor Of the car. The people damned
here and there trying to get some
where.
1.-THE smoke got so thick that q
person couldn't keep his eyes open.
/ shouted for everybody to get close
to the floor. This was hard to do
because the press Of people was %
tight. The smoke drove Us down to
the floor and because Of the intense
heat we had to get up again. 1t be-
came like a hot oven. You see, the
car was a steel car. Only for that
we would all have been cremated.
Some women whom we could
hear above all the others cried out
Let US pray Then we began to
give up hope. began to feel faint
from the heat, the smoke and every.
thing. Some of the women collapsed
into the seats gasping for breath
Every minute seemed like an hour
We began to pray and think we
would never get help. II we broke
the windows, 1t meant that the
smoke would come In all the fas.
ter. We couldn't open the doors and
get away because they were jam.
med tight.
Rudolph grasped my hand and
cried out What did ! ever do to die
a death like this?' I wanted to ask
that too, but somehow or other.
was SO faint, couldn't rouse my
self. I remember Rudolph sayinf
goodbye to me. just like those sail
ors in the submarine must hav,
done. l was in the navy during The
war and I can guess how the,