Mayor Admits Only Five Fire Engines in City Marseilles, Oct, 29.
Means to avert in future any such destructive fires as razed the Nouvelles Galeries department store yesterday, were studied today at an important meeting in the Prefecture. The Home Minister, M. Albert Sarraut and the Deputy Mayor, M. Tasso, were among those present.
Replying to criticisms levelled by some newspapers, M. Tasso specified at the meeting that when he took up his functions three years ago, there were only three fire engines in Marseilles During his term in office, he had purchased two more.
He added that the fire brigade possessed a canvas tube escape, but it could not be used because of the swift spread and great intensity of the blaze, which burnt the Hotel de Noailles and the Grand Hotel Astoria, At 9 o'clock this evening, the lisí of people not accounted for included 69 names. The clearing-up of wreckage at the site of the blaze night—Havas, wil e continued, throughout
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.