1932-08-01 — Page 7

MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1932.

Fire's Heavy Toll In Shumshuipo

Eight Dead In Early Morning Blaze

LADDERS TOO SHORT

FIREMEN HANDICAPPED IN BRAVE RESCUE EFFORTS,

Firemen's Daring. Superintendent Fitz-Henry, who arrived on the Kowloon side with the Hong Kong motor firefloat, was first up the rescue ladder to the Htopmost...balcony,--By this time, the flames. had been driven into the interior of the structures, and the rescue workers, shading their faces with their hands, sought for possible survivors.

When two women, unconscious and apparently overcome by suf focation, and soaked with the water which the hose crews had poured into the place, were carried down the ladder on the bäcks of the rescue crew, the second floor of No. 129 fell through with a crash. The work of the men above was the more hazardous, then, for there was danger that the floor on Eight Chinese died of burns and seven others were seriously which they, trod might cave in at injured in a fire which swept at merciless speed through the crowd-any moment. Two more bodies, "a ed living quarters of two attached dwellings, No. 129 and 131, Peigne of a little boy, were brought out to the edge of the balcony: The body of a woman, horribly burned, was lowered in a canvas and laid in the street. Sikh police men threw back the, morbidly cúri- ous crowd.

Ho Street, Shumshuipo, early yesterday morning. Among the dead were four children,

1

Some of the 40 occupants of the cries shrilled even above the two buildings, too late to escupe use of the fire, down the crowded, narrow, stair i Meanwhile, those way. saved their lives by jumping crawled across the roof tiles, from the roul into a canwas sheet. had a chance to escape. Below Two of them were seriously hurt with a jumping sheet, the first i "The drop. An 8-month-old reinen to arrive, assisted by baby was thrown from the roof civilians and police officers, were aird caught by the rescue crew be calling to them, to jump. But thej Jow, quite uninjured.

the

THE CHIN MAIL

SHANGHAI ANXIETY OVER UNEMPLOYED

SCORES OF BRITONS

SEEKING WORK

MANY ARE IN WANT

FLOCKING FROM HONG KONG, SINGAPORE AND DOMINIONS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Shanghai, Saturday.

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Increasing unemployment among scores of British people in Shanghai is creating real anxiety here and patriotic bodies and other organisations are feeling the pressure of heavy claims for assistance from the temporarily indigent. Britons are not the only sufferers.

The situation was already acute owing to the closing of certain business undertakings, but it has been aggravated by the steady influx of Canadians, Australians, Hong Kong and Singapore people, and even former Calcutta residents, all seeking work. Very few of them arrive with any large ameant of money.

Social workers have 'frankly announced that they are almost at a limit of their resources and urge that it is necessary to broadcast The information that Shanghai 'cannot provide sufficient employ ment for its own people, let alone absorb the workless of other Far. East points.

The North China Daily News editorially urges the establish. ment of a civic social service body and appeals to employers to give careful thought before any plan for the reduction of staffs is executed.

A wailing, elderly woman, press who had fed through the throng to catch a glimpse of the body. She was half-crazed with shock and terror, ter children had been in the burn ing building and she had not then learned whether they had escaped. she was led away.

X space, in a' narrow. alley, re- Flames Quickly Quenched The first dramatic scenes of restricted the movements of the The Are lasted not more than seur and escape were followed by rescuers. They could not hold the 15 minutes. For the greater part harrowing and tragic minutes. jumping sheet as taught as it wastor that time it was merely smould- when frantic, choking women and necessary,

ering, soaked In water, great. children screamed for help from Baby Thrown Clear.

volumes of steam and smoke bil- the upper storey of the building.) Someone from above tossed owing into the air. But its early They had utterly no hope of escap- an infant down to them, and the intensity had completed, tha ruin ing and frunzen were powerless to child, no more than 18 months for the place and had done help them. Ladders were too short rk, landed unhurt in the sheet. work of destruction of human to reach the upper balcony in the I was immediately carried away lives despite the speed with which marly stages of the fire and before By ambulance attendants." the firemen subdued it the resene ladder appliances afriv Altogether seven jumped but The buildings are a total loss. Tel. The bist episode of the night the or two were badly injured...

Ap- wir whole interior gutted.. mare, watched by hundreds of The flames had enveloped the parently the fire started in the It was at first impossible to silent binase. was the climb to whole structure by his time-ground door of No B. a small pitch. Judders at the front or side The upper level, of the buildings The first fire appliances to ar-cake shop. It climbed the single of the burning structure, firemen morning, the residents of Kimberely by a pescue crew headed by Super-friss threw their hoses into play stairway swiftly and spread, with explained after the blaze. "The Road, Kowloon, were awakened by intendent Fitz-Henry, the carrying within a few seconds and an at-scarcely a warning, into the crowd-alley which "bounded Nr. 129 was the crash of a fall of masonry, fol- - Blackened, limp bodies down the tent was made to seale the fed quarters of those who slept too narrow and the flames at the lowed by loud screams and the shrill laddens to the street, the clanging front side of the building and above. Before long it had burned front were too great to allow their call of police whistles. The front. race of ambulances anil the search-reach the upper stories where, it the partition between No. 131 and erection. Firemen did. avecced fut à house at the cast end of Knuts- ing for the dead.

was even then certain, several No. 129, and a medical shop, on however, in reaching the roof of font Terrace bad collapsed. persons had been trapped. But the ground floor of the Intter No. 133, and from there the fight Fire appliances were early on the the ladders reach, even to the first balcony.

were too short to house, in which were chemicals of was waged against the spread of sene but on investigation it was

various sorts," was consumed. The danger.

found that only part of the verandah By the time the rescue equip-sounds of dull explosions, heard This is a crowded block and the had collapsed and that no one had ment was on the scene.. hastily by many who watched the progress menace of a far more serious con-heen Injured. summoned by the officer in charge of the flames, gave, rise to the beflagration was obvious at the cut-

Five hodies were carried from the burring houses. Of the injur ed. Taken to Kowloon Hospital three others died with a brief apure of time.

་

Fire Victims.

Sze Jo-chun, (aged 25.

Di Yun lam, aged 4.

Au biu, aged 14.5

Phoi an mui hong nh

Li Chuck-ain, aged 9.

Tsang Wong-choi, aged 13. ||

An unknown woman.

Tam Shur (29) died in hospital.

Injured.

Chau Chiu-kwan, aged 39, burns.

Chan, Kum-hing, aged 29, severe

burns.

41

Tai-hee, aged 16.

Leung Yip-wah, nged 20.

Li Chuek-man, aged 16

Tam Shing, aged 3.

Li Fuk, aged 27.

Crowded Buildings,

It was believed that there

were

40 persons in the two

houses when the fire started.

At 2.58 a European police' ser- geant on duty in the vicinity. having seen. the light of the

flames through the door of No. 131, called the Kowloon fire sta tion and gave the first alarm..

-

which materially aided the ad- in the area which was momentari- vance of the fire.

ly in danger from flying embers, Could Not Pitch Ladders, and the heat of the flames.

An Early Call. Shortly after 2 o'clock on Sunday

It was just after Kowloon and [ Are had gained such a hold aslief that there were explosives of set. The great purpose of the fire Mangkok firemen had returned from to repel wit efforts to climb into some description in the medical force, besides the saving of lives. this call that they were summoned the upper portions of either house, store or on the floor above it.was in the protection of property to the Shumshuipo outbreak.

Running back towards the buildings, this officer was starti- by the sudden leaping of the fames above the first floor, into the second and finally about the Foof. In two or three minutes in which he had been absent, the fire had apparently spread from a comparatively isolated spot, Throughout the whole house.

The Officer in charge of the Kowloon Station. G. Saunders; explained this rapid spread" when questioned yesterday morning after a night of work at the scene of the tragedy.

"The fire climbed the single stairway in an instant," he said, "and spread about the floors. It must have been no time before the whole place was aflame. The people who were still inside after those first few minutes never had a chance.”:

"Cries of Horror.

It was the shrill blowing of police whistles which roused the neighbourhood, and brought crowds to the vicinity. From the street outside, the burning

houses; whose. interior was 80 soon a roaring furnace, silent, ineffectual Chinese watched half a dozen terrified inmates crawl from the front verandah of the top floor, up over the roof and towards the rear of the building.

One or two who attempted to climb to the roof, lacked the strength and went back into the house

A moment later their

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