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Show PASSENGERS AND MOST OF CREW RESCUED WHEN FIRE SWEEPS ITALIAN LINER, DESTROYING MANY LIFEBOATS MARSEILLE, France, Jan. 22 UPl The fire which burned through the 11,669-ton Italian mo-torsbip mo-torsbip Orazio off the south of France yesterday spread so fast that nearly all the lifeboats went up In flames before they could be launched, survivors disclosed upon arrival here today. Despite the speed of the fire and heavy seas which tossed lifeboats life-boats high, however, all 412 passengers pas-sengers and all but a few of the 231 crew members were rescued, the line announced. Forty-eight survivors brought here aboard a French warship Included 23 women and three small V children, who were hurried to two hotels which were converted into emergency hospitals. They told harrowing stories of their escape es-cape from death. The Orazio's second officer, Captain Cap-tain Giorello, said that the fire followed an explosion In the engines. en-gines. He said the cause of the blast was undetermined. "The fire was fanned by the wind," he said, "and spread with such rapidity that one can say that when we sent out the S O S and it was quite soon we hsd almost no lifeboats left." Captain Giorello said there was no panic. Some of the passengers, other survivors said, threw themselves them-selves into the sea to be picked up, while other huddled on deck and were lowered into lifeboats sent by rescue ships. Frau Blanche Weisskopf, a 52-year-old German, said she was In her third class cabin when the Orazio, which was one day out of Genoa bound for South America, Amer-ica, "seemed to lesp with an explosion." ex-plosion." Frsu Weisskopf was severely burned and suffered several fractures. frac-tures. She was carried off the French warship on a stretcher. "I started to erush on deck at 1 once," she said, "and was about V i half way up when flames' spurted out at me from an open doorway. I stumbed and fell and was dragged from the flames by two sailors. "We huddled together In the center of the boat, because the flames were sweeping both the front and rear decks. "I managed to be lowered Into a lifeboat from the French warship, but I saw another boatload. Including In-cluding women and children, spilled Into the water when one of the Orazio's lifeboats was Isunched. The flames hsd burnt through the ropes. They were sll picked up, however," 4 |