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Show GINEMA HALL BURNS FIFIY FEBd LOST LITTLE TOWN IN IRELAND 18 SCENE OF TRAGEDY; UNUSUAL UN-USUAL EVENT ENDS BADLY Projecting Machine Near Only Door, Bursts Into Flames; Panic Follows; Less Than 500 Population. Limerick, Ireland Fifty lives were j lost and a dozen persons seriously j i injured Sunday night in a fire in a ! ! temporary Cinema hall in the village I of Drumcollogher near here. i The moving picture show was be- j ing given in a hall over a garage in a wooden building. The hall was reached by one stairway. The pro- I jecting machine caught fire and in i the panic women and children were j crushed and trampled in the frantic j stampede to escape from the blazing I hall and many were trapped to be j burned alive. j The village lias a poorly equipped water supply aud the wooden build- j j :ng with the garage on the ground i floor burned fiercely. The village of Drumcollogher has ; less tha-n 500 population, but the an-; an-; nouncement of the showing of the ! film, "The Decoy, ' attracted an audi- ence from all the hamlets about, for : ?uch a show was an unusual event in j those remote villages, j The fire started within fifteen min-l min-l utes after the opening of the show. : The projecting machine was not pro-i pro-i tected by any screen and was placed I within a foot of the only door. When : it caught fire, it was a seething mass of flames within a moment or so and great panic seized the spectators rushing for the door, who had to pass : through sheets of flame from the apparatus. ap-paratus. Men, women and children were knocked down and trampled in the terrible rush. . |