12
33
There is no doubt therefore,
teristic of combustion of celluloid film.
that this flame that witnesses saw was due to the burning of celluloid film scrap which was subsequently found to have been stored in the go- down behind the place where the flame escaped into the street.
26. The burst of flame almost simultaneously enveloped every floor at the western end of the tenements, and the majority of the victims of the fire must have lost their lives within these first few minutes. 113 re- cognisable bodies were recovered from the staircases on either side of where the film was stored or from the rooms adjacent to these staircases. Only a very few were found elsewhere in flats at the castern end. The evidence of survivors indicated that there appeared to be flames in every staircase, and that whereever they ran their way was blocked. Those who lived in the eastern end were most fortunate, as on discov.ry that their way out to the street was blocked, they fled to the third floor flats and the roof of Nos. 353 and 351, where the fire was least intense. Un- doubtedly some of the initial flame reached even into rooms at this end as some were found scorched or even completely burnt out, while adjoining rooms were hardly damaged by fire. Once the initial flaming had died down, the fire assumed a more normal aspect, abnormal only in the very large area aHaze such a short time after the outbreak.
Arrival of the Fire Brigade and Rescue Work:
27. The fire alarm was given almost immediately on the outbreak by po- licemen in the vicinity. Police from the Eastern Station close by and
No. 3 appliance from the Western Station were on the scene within two
or three minutes of the alarm. No. 9 fire appliance which had a 100' turntable ladder and No. 16 appliance from the Central Fire Station were probably in the fire area by 0817. No. 1 appliance from Central followed shortly afterwards. Rescue operations with the ladder were commenced im- mediately, and some 60 persons escaped by this means from the 3rd and 4th floors of No. 351.
28.
During this period also a small number of persons escaped down the steps at the rear leading into Whitty Street, or by jumping into the