Fire Breaks Out in Theatre Packed with a Holiday Audien¢
Sauve-Qui-Peut by Panic Stricken People Madrid, Sept' 23.
The Novadades Theatre, an antient structure in the midst of the anost populous quarter in the city, was the scene to-day of a frightful fire, which broke out on the stage und spread to the packed auditorium.
The panic-stricken audience choked the limited number of exits.
The theatre, together with a wade block of surrounding build-Sngsywas gutted.
There were numerous casualt the number of which has not been far estimated, Later. ig feared that several hundred persons perished in the fire at the Novadades Theatre, Over 200 in-Jured are being treated at ambulance of action the street lights, grea hampering the work of the firemen until a party of" Army engineers arrived with huge flares. 'The legal thorities who arrived to open their inquiry had to be escorted by men bearing torches, by the tickering' light of which they began their work.
Eighty-five bodies have now been recovered from the ruins. Over 350] persons were injured, many serious-
The Theatre a Structure of Wood Sept. 24.
The fusing of an electric wire, the failure of the safety curtain t> act, and the fact that the theatre was constructed wholly of wood caused the destruction of the Novedades Theatre.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.