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Show FOUR THOUSAND DEAD 111 HALIFAX EXPLOSION ON MUNITIONS SHIP. IN HARBOR WIPES OUT WHOLE FAMILIES. Twenty-five Thousand Made Homeless, Buildings Destroyed, Fire Following Follow-ing Explosion and Bringing Further Ruin. Halifax, N. S. Four thousand persons per-sons were killed in the burning and instruction of buildings resulting from the explosion on a munitions ship in the harbor Thursday, December 6, according ac-cording to estimates by the superintendent superin-tendent of morgues, whose duty it is to assemble and expose for identification, identifi-cation, if possible, the bodies of those , who perished by shock or fire when the ammunition ship Mont Blanc blew up in the harbor. In one school alone more than 540 children were killed. Only seven pupils pu-pils were extricated alive from the ruins of the building. The matron and every child at the Protestant orphans' home are dead. Of the 1000 bodies recovered to date only one-half have been identified. Twenty-five thousand men, women and children were made homeless. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of bodies have been consumed by the (lames, and in scores of cases not only whole families, but whole neighborhoods, neighbor-hoods, have been wiped out, and the names of all their dead may never be known. Men of the naval forces drugged the water front Sunday and recovered the bodies of 200 sailors, soldiers and workmen. The property loss, variously estimated esti-mated at from $20,000,000 to foO.OOU,-000, foO.OOU,-000, probably will prove to be nearer the minimum figure. Ships Collide. The collision occurred near pier 8 in the narrows leading from the harhor to Bedford basin. The munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, was bound from New Tork for Bedford basin when the relief ship Imo, bound for sea, crashed into her. The Bont Blanc was pierced on the port side almost to the engine room. The other ship, w hich-was only slightly slight-ly damaged, backed away when Harass burst out on the munitions ship and was abandoned by the crew. The captain cap-tain 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 tre-mendous blast seventeen minutes later, which blew their ship to pieces and wrecked a large part of the city. Many Houses Collapse. The business lite of the city jiadjiist begun for the clay when the town was shaken to its foundations by the ex-. ex-. plosion. Persons in 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 Rich-mond section crumpled up and collapsed, col-lapsed, burying their tenants. In the main part of the ciiy, 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 class. 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, how-ever, opposite the scene of the explo sion, that the havoc was greatest. Whole blocks of dwellings, mostly of frame construction, were leveled. Fires Add to the Horror. Street after street is in ruins and the structures which were left standing I'T the explosion were destroyed by lire? which broke out simultaneously in score of places and which it was impossible im-possible to check until they had burned themselves out. It is believed scores of persons who had been injured t7 the collapse of their homes perished in the llames, from which they were helpless to flee. " Five minutes after the explosion the streets in all parts of Halifax were tilled with frenzied, panic-stricken throngs, striving to reach the outskirts In an endeavor to escape what they believed was a raid by a German fleet. Hundreds of them had been cut by the shower of glass which followed l'ie explosion. In the Richmond section the scenes enacted defied description. Scriousl.' injured men and women crawled fro"1 the wreckage of their homes and l".v In the streets until they were removed in ambulances and automobiles to hospitals. hos-pitals. Those less seriously hurt aided aid-ed those more gravely injured. the streets, piled high with debris, were found the mangled bodies many women and children. Seven'' children were crushed to death when they were hurled against telepl'one Doles by the force of the explosion. |
