More than 1,600 sullen and grumbling prisoners stuffed bits of rubbish and splinters of wood into the coll door locks to prevent the guards from locking them up again, and prison authorities were inclined doors were opened, but the rescuers entered the eells only to find that many of the prisoners had been burnt to death or were suffocated.
At the inquiry into the disaster, thy chief warden testified that his only instructions in case of fire were to prevent the convicts from escaping.
One of the keepers, who was on. duty in the cell block where most of the fatalities occurred, has been suspended.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.