'A fatal accident marred the competitions of the French Fire Brigade "Lo Torrent" at Koukaza Park, on May 17, when at the end the whole affair an escape fell over backwards, bearing with it Chinese fireman who was playing! 'a hose from the top, and crashing to the ground. The fireman died on the sway to hospital.
The affair happened in the Chinese! section of the programme, the foreign volunteers, both those of the French No, 1 Company and the international No. 2. Company, having carried out their competition first. In each section sot the programme one practice calls for the! playing of a hose from an escape 40 feet in height, whicn is built] in two sections and mounted wheels and in this case used water-tower. Two handserews take up. the weight of the escape in front, but the accident was. Jcaused by a backlash, through the pressure of water going out of the hose, and the escape was thrown Foreign firemen, including an loticer of the Shanghai Fire Brigade Jwho was a spectator, were standing close by the escape, and they realiz~ ed what was going to happen as soon as the escape first kicked back wards. They threw themselves at the wheel and brought all their weight to bear to keep it from overturning, but without effect, even being lifted clear off the ground.
To the spectators the movement lof the escape as it neared the point of balance and then passed it was fagonisingly slow. Then it gained speed and fell over backwards with 'a crash, the fireman at the top landing on his back with the whole! weight of the escape on his chest. The spectators just scattered in time to avoid being hit, The unfortunate fireman was immediately put on to a stretcher and' within a minute was on the way to St. Marie's Hospital in the Brigade ambulance, but he died before he zat there. He was 20 years of age, native of Kompo, and had been in the service of the French Fire Brigade only four months.
The accident occurred just as the Jcompetition was completed. When }water came through the nozzle held lby the fireman on the escape the Jjudge blew his whistle to indicate time the event had ended, and the accident occurred immediately afterwards, as the sudden pressure of water inthe hose caused a reaction, This team, that of Chateau d'Eau Station, was the last to compete, and actually won the Chinese com-
Petition.
Detailed results of the competitions follow:
Event 12 3 Penalty Total Chollot sg 65 S24 102p Huxley "3874539 1669 Husley "394.58—1869 Newer 4p Sige 1978 Stokes BE 103.63
Teams: (1) L. A. Chollot, C. Guille-Wilkineon, L. C- Earnshaw and F.'W. Schlobohim. (2) J, "Huxley, "W.
Gosselin, E. 8. Thellefsen, L. Sirot and W. 8. Clay. (3) G. juir, D. B.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.