page_title: Bazar de la Charité
section_title: Fire of 1897
hierarchical_section_title: Bazar de la Charité / Fire of 1897
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover page of Petit Journal, supplément illustré, 16 May 1897, number 339, Incendie du Bazar de la Charité, le sinistre. Français&#160;: Couverture du Petit Journal, supplément illustré en date du 16 mai 1897, numéro 339, Incendie du Bazar de la Charité, le sinistre.
context_page_description: The Bazar de la Charité was an annual charity event orchestrated by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris beginning in 1885, when it was first organised by Englishman Henry Blount, the son of banker Sir Edward Blount, a financier of railway enterprises in France. The Bazar was held in a variety of locations by a consortium of charitable organisations that shared renting fees, acting to reduce costs and group potential buyers.
  The 1897 Bazar de la Charité became known for the fire which claimed 126 lives, many of which notable aristocratic women, including Sophie Charlotte, Duchess of Alençon.
context_section_description: In 1897, the Bazar was located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris at 17 Rue Jean-Goujon, inside a large wooden warehouse which the organisers had reconstituted a medieval street using painted wood, cardboard, cloth, and papier-mache. One of the key attractions of the Bazar, scheduled for the 3rd to the 6th of May, was to be a cinematograph installation which functioned with ether lamps.
  On the afternoon of the 4th of May, the projectionist's equipment caught fire, and 126 people—mostly aristocratic women—died as a result of the following blaze and the panic of the crowd in attendance. Over 200 others sustained additional injuries, and the disaster—noted for improperly marked exits—was reported on both nationally and internationally.
  Some of the visitors fleeing through the courtyard were aided in escaping through the windows of the adjacent Hôtel du Palais' kitchen by the hotel's manager, Mme Roche-Sautier, and cook M Gauméry. The condition of the charred remains of the victims was such that dental records were necessary for identification, which in itself became a landmark in the early history of forensic dentistry.
  In the aftermath of the fire, 937,438 francs, equivalent to the amount raised by the previous year's Bazar, was donated by an anonymous benefactor to the charitable purposes for which the Bazar de la Charité had been organised.
caption: A contemporary report of the fire
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