HARTFORD, July
7 (AP) - The death toll in the greatest fire in circus history topped
the 150 mark today, with the majority of victims women and cildren,
as the full, grim unfolding of the catastrophe, which destroyed the
main tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus
turned this stunned city into a center of grieving.
Dr. Alfred I.
Burgdorf, city health officer, fixed the death at 146, while 250
other persons, burned or injured when the big top first burst into
flames and then collapsed yesterday, were scattered in three
hospitals.
Identification
of the dead was slow, and Mayor William Mortensen saying it was
likely many of the charred holiday makers would never be known
announced that the city probably would be called upon to bury them.
Meanwhile, a
variety of investigators pressed an inquiry into the origin of the
inferno which quickly changed a gay throng of 6,000 into a
panic-stricken, shrieking mass of humanity with only one object in
ind - to escape the horror of a fast-settling, flaming shroud of
fiercely burning canvas from the bigtop.
As a steady
stream of weary relatives sought to give names to the victims who lay
beneath sheets in grim aisles of dead in the huge, sprawling Armory,
five officials of the circus company were held in high bail, charged
with manslaughter.
While a
quickly mobilized emergency corps went about the poignant task of
counting the full cost of the tragedy, believed to have been caused
by a carelessly tossed cigarette, eye-witnesses piled one detail of
horror upon another.
Everyone,
among them some who had succeeded in cheating death at the scene
where all had been laughter and gaiety, seemed to get relief from the
shock of the tragedy by relating their experiences.
A physician
and his wife, listening to the booming of the loud speaker on a state
police car, suddenly broke out in a nervous smile and they learned
that their two children, who had left the house for the circus, had
changed their minds and gone instead to a neighborhood movie, where
they were found.
The loud
speaker also brought good news to scores of other parents who had
come to the State Armory in search of their loved ones. Time and
again the voice told the anxious folks of youngsters who had been
rescued and taken to homes near the scene of the tragedy.
Moving to the
circus grounds, only the charred ruins and patrolling squads of
soldiers and police, with an ambulance here and there gave outward
evidence of the disaster.
Hours after
the fire a circus ticket seller, with a bewildered expression, moaned
"it's so calm and peaceful here now. If I didn't see it, I
wouldn't believe it. It was awful while it lasted."
Not a single
circus employee was known to have perished and none of the animals
died.
The flying
Wallendas - Herman, Carl, Joe, Helen and Henrietta - were on the
high-wire when the blaze broke out. One of them descried the
spreading flames, called quickly to the others and all slid down the
ropes near the performers' exit.
They found,
however, that the crowd was before them and they made their exit
acrobatic fashion over an animal cage.
It cost as
much as $1 a call for frantic persons escaping fire to telephone
relatives of their safety.
The Hartford
Times reported it had learned that at least one householder in the
immediate vicinity of the holocaust had garnered $200 at the expense
of panic stricken escapees.
On the other
hand, many homes in the vicinity were freely thrown open to survivors
with lines of men, women and children from the sidewalks to the
telephone, patiently awaiting their opportunity to convey the good
news of their safety.
The Red Cross
blood donor center was swamped today with countless offers of blood
for circus victims, but V.H. Vosburgh, chairman, said the supply of
available plasma was now ample.
Flags on the
State Capitol flew at half-staff today in a sorrowful fluttering
tribute to the circus dead on order of Governor Raymond E. Baldwin
who yesterday plunged personally into the work of directing rescue
and relief and stayed on the job far into the night.
Scores of
soldiers from a nearby army rest camp, sent to the circus for
relaxation, forgot their own injuries suffered in action overseas, to
aid in numerous rescues.
A few suffered
minor injuries escaping from the big top, but after being treated for
arm and hand injuries, they stood by and helped squads carry out
bodies and people seriously injured.
The question
of the ultimate cost of the disaster and possible reimbursement of
victims had not yet been officially broached but Mayor Mortensen said
he had been informed that the circus carried $500,000 in public
liability insurance.
Meanwhile
investigators seeking to establish a reason for the startlingly rapid
spread of the blaze which all eye-witnesses agreed mushroomed with an
incredible speed from a tiny finger of flame near the main entrance
to a gigantic inferno of smoke and fire.
Police court
prosecutor James F. Kennedy announced that his preliminary
investigation had established that the huge canvas tent had been
coated with a water-proof solution of gasoline and paraffin before
the circus left its winter quarters at Sarasota, Fla. early in the
year.
Many witnesses
to the appalling scene commented upon the thick, oily nature of the
billowing flames and smoke.
Among other
agencies investigating were the State's Attorney's office, the FBI
and a special committee appointed by Mayor William Mortensen.