December 27 1924
Christmas-Tree Horror – Forty-Two Lives Lost in a Burning Schoolroom
A Reuter’s Hobart, Oklahoma (USA) telegram says forty-two persons are reported to have been burned to death in a fire which broke out at a Christmas entertainment in a local school.
A lighted candle on a Christmas tree set the tree on fire, and the flames, spreading with terrible rapidity amongst the Christmas decorations, soon enveloped the schoolroom.
Panic-stricken, the children and their parents made a wild rush for the door, many being trampled underfoot.
The scene was one terrible beyond description, mothers screaming in tragic fear for their little ones, while the children’s agonised shrieks of pain and terror mingled with the roaring of the flames.
The only door in the building was soon blocked with a struggling mass. Parents fought desperately to reach their children. Attempts were made to break the window but the wire screen outside resisted all efforts to pull them down, with the result that many persons were hopelessly trapped.
Thirty-six bodies have been recovered, and it is feared six more still remain in the debris.
Over half the casualties of the Babbs Switch fire in Oklahoma on Christmas Eve 1924 were children. It was one of the worst school fires in US history.
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Derry Border Incident
Some excitement was caused in Derry late on Tuesday by the appearance of a Lancia car containing a party of Free State soldiers escorted by Special Constabulary. They were taken to the courthouse.
On inquiry it was learned that the Lancia, with seventeen Free State soldiers aboard, came into Northern territory and drove up to the constabulary port on the Letterkenny road, where it was halted and subsequently escorted to the city. The soldiers, who were unarmed, explained that they were going on Christmas leave, and took a wrong turning on the road to Ballybofey. This occurred at nine o’clock, and on their story being verified by phone to the headquarters at Buncrana, the troops with the Lancia were escorted across the border and proceeded on their way.
In time of heightened tension along the border, any incursions by security forces beyond their territory were treated with great apprehension, even innocent ones.
