| Citation |
MS-B.772.060
13 Aug 1772:973,974 (2/78)
All the letters from Amsterdam are filled with accounts of
the fire which consumed the Dutch playhouse on Monday night.
It is almost impossible to give a just picture of the
desolation into which many families are plunged by this
terrible accident. The numbers of people who crouded the
next morning about the door of the playhouse is incredible;
persons of all ranks and ages came to see after the
unfortunate remains of their relations or friends who
perished in the flames, or were trampled to death by the
croud. The fire caught one of the wings of a flat scene,
and rapidly ascending towards the top of the building, there
was not time to stop the progress of the flames, which
instantly consumed the ropes that sustained the branches
containing the light, the fall of which augmented the fire
and increased the confusion and disorder. Part of the
spectators who were in the galleries being unable to save
themselves by the staircase, threw themselves into the pit,
and were bruised to death, or killed those on whom they
fell. At length to complete the misfortune, the roof, of
the building fell in, before those who were in the hall
could get out. The confusion was not less out of the house;
for, notwithstanding the zeal and vigilance of the
Magistrates and Burghers, they could not make the great
number of coaches which were near the principal doors,
remove time enough to bring up the engines, which could not
play till the whole edifice was on fire; then by the most
incredible efforts the progress of the flames was happily
stopt, which had communicated to the adjoining houses. We
cannot yet tell the exact number of persons who lost their
lives by this deplorable accident; some say 150, others 200.
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