Show FOUR N DEAD AT HALIFAX EXPLOSION ON MUNITIONS SHIP IN HARBOR WIPES OUT WHOLE FAMILIES twenty five thousand rho usand made homeless buildings destroyed fire follow follow ing explosion bringing further ruin Mall halifax fix N S four thousand persons were killed in the burning and destruction of buildings result resulting ln from the explosion on a munitions ship in the harbor thursday december 0 recording according to estimates by the superintendent of morgues whose duty it la Is to assemble and expose tor for identification if possible the bodies of those who perished by shock or tire fire when the ammunition ship afoot blanc blew up in the harbor in one school alone more than children were killed only seven pupils were extricated alive from the ruins of the building the matron and every child at the protestant prot eastant orphans home are dead 0 of f the 1000 bodies recovered to date only one halt half have been identified twenty five thousand men women and children were made homeless hundreds perhaps thousands of bodies have been consumed by the flames and in scores of cases not only bhole ft hole families but whole neighborhoods have been wiped out and the names of all their dead may never te be known I 1 men alen of the naval forces dragged the water front sunday and recovered the bodies of sal sailors lors soldiers and workmen the property loss variously estimated at from to probably hilll prove to be nearer the minimum figure ships collide the collision occur occurred ref near pier 8 in the narrows leading from the harbor to Bed bedford forb basin the munitions ship the mont blanc was hound from new york for bedford basin when nhen the relief ship imo bound for sea crashed into her the dont bont blanc was pierced on the port side almost to the engine room the other ship which was only slightly damaged backed away when flames burst out on the munitions ship and w was as abandoned hy by the crew the captala caplain of the mont blanc also ordered his crew to the boats as he realized an explosion was inevitable the men reached shore safely before the tremendous blast seventeen minutes later which blew their ship to pieces and wrecked a largo large part of 0 the city many houses collapse the business life of the city had just begun for the day when the town was wag shaken to its foundations by the explosion pl oslon persons in tile the streets were picked up bodily and hurled to the ground occupants of office buildings cowered under a shower of falling glass and plaster houses in the richmond section crumpled up and collapsed burying their tenants in the west and northwest ends the damage was more extensive and there the walls of many houses were blown to bits it was in richmond however opposite the scene of the explosion that the havoc was greatest whole blocks of dwelli dwellings mostly of frame construction were leveled in the main part of the city where the buildings are chiefly of stone or concrete the damage was confined to the shattering of windows and most of the casualties in this section were caused by flying glass I 1 fires add to the horror street after street Is in ruins and the structures v which bieh eleft left standing by the explosion were destroyed by fires which broke out simultaneously in a score of places and which etwas t was impossible to check until tiley they had burned themselves out it Is believed scores of persons who had bad been injured by tile collapse of their homes perished in the flames from which they were helpless to flee five fire minutes alter after the explosion tile the streets in all parts of halifax were filled with frenzied paulc panic stricken throngs striving to reach tile the outskirts in an all endeavor to escape what they I 1 believed was a raid by a german fleet hundreds of them had been cut by the of glass which followed the explosion in the richmond section the scenes enacted defied description loll serio seriously l y injured men and women craw crawled leil from the wreckage of 0 their homes and I 1 lay ay in the streets until they were removed in ambulances find and automobiles to lios 1109 those less seriously hurt aided those more gravely injured la the streets plied piled lif high hwi with debris were found the mangled bodies of 0 many women und and children several sever al children were crushed to death liea they were hurled against telephone poles by the force of ane explosion |