Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1903 — AWFUL DIRASTER VISITS PARIS. [ARTICLE]

AWFUL DIRASTER VISITS PARIS.

Many Passengers of Underground Railway Lose Their Lives. An awful catastrophe occurred in Paris the other evening on the Metropolitan electric railway, which runs mostly under ground. Three trains were consumed by fire and passengers were burned or suffocated. The total number of victims is estimated at nearly one hundred. « One of die trains broke down at Menilmontant station, which is in a poor and

populous section of the city. This train was promptly emptied and the train which followed was ordered to push it to the repairing sheds. On the way these two trains caught fire, but the employes succeeded in escaping. Meanwhile a crowded train reached LesCharonnes, the preceding station, and the officials, seeing smoke pouring out of the tunnel, gave the alarm. Amid the increasing smoke many attempted to return along the line toward Belleville, and they were suffocated. The officials teem to have lost their heads and arc unable to say bow many passengers went out. The firemen for several hours were unable to enter the station or the tunnel owing to the dense smoke which poured out in black clouds. Meanwhile tens of thousands of anxious people gathered about the station. All the police and fire authorities were on the spot and the excitement was intense. Finally the firemen succeeded in flooding the burning mass and shortly afterward they were able to enter the tunnel.