1.
AERIAL VIEWS Buildings of fire. (2 shots)
0.10

2.
GV Wrecked building with firemen searching through. (3 shots)
0.21

3.
SV Wrecked bus, AND INTERIORS wreckage. (3 shots)
0.32

4.
GV PAN FROM Firemen to wreckage. (3 shots)
0.43

5.
CU ZOOM OUT FROM Wreckage to firemen searching through wreckage for missing family. (2 shots)
0.53

6.
SV Firemen digging through wreckage next morning.
1.02

7.
GV Heavy machinery used to search through wreckage. (2 shots)
1.10

8.
GV Crane removing part of wreckage.
1.15

9.
LV ZOOM TO Firemen searching wreckage.
1.20


SCOTT OSBORNE: "The sound of the blast boomed across Brooklyn just after six o'clock this morning. Streams of smoke swept into the dawn sky. A three-storey building at the intersection of Nostrand and Myrtle avenues suddenly collapsed. The explosion rocked a passing bus, bound for downtown Brooklyn. The exploding building's fire-escape came to rest on top of the vehicle. Ten passengers and the bus driver fled through emergency hatches. All were injured.



"Debris also covered a police car, and the officer's frantic call summonsed firemen and police. The five-alarm fire had spread to tenements adjacent to the building. There first task was to rescue six people trapped beneath the rubble - Adolphus George, his wife Lucille, and their four children were in the building when it exploded.



"Through the morning firemen continued digging by hand. Later rescuers summonsed heavy machinery to dig through the rubble to the building's basement. In all, nineteen people suffered injuries. The Red Cross reported one hundred and fifty five people living in the immediate vicinity of the blast were left homeless. Meantime, officials suspected arsonists were responsible for the explosion and fire."




Initials WLW/VS 23.45 WLW/VS 23.58


original on 12242/72 39ft
SCOTT OSBORNE (NBC)

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: An abandoned factory building in Brooklyn, New York, exploded in a giant fireball on Wednesday (4 October) that sent smoke billowing over the city.

The down explosion set fire to a row of tenement buildings in which more than 150 people were sleeping. Twenty-eight people were injured, including some of firemen and police at the scene.

Reporters present said the toll of injured was kept down only because of a number of daring rescues by police and firemen.

Preliminary investigations have led police to suspect that arsonists were responsible for the explosion and the fire.

This film is provided with English commentary over natural sound. An alternative written commentary is provided overleaf.

SYNOPSIS: The glow from a huge blaze in Brooklyn, New York, could be seen for miles after an abandoned factory building was reduced to a pile of rubble by an explosion and fire. So fierce was the fire, which erupted just before dawn, that the flames quickly spread to tenement buildings next to the factory. Inside were more than one-hundred-and-fifty sleeping people. A bus, passing the factory at the time of the explosion, was rocked by a collapsing fire escape. Ten passengers and the driver fled through emergency hatches - but all were injured. Firemen then had to search for a missing family in the rubble.

At first, the firemen had to dig through the rubble with bare hands, but they found the family. In all twenty-eight people were injured, but reporters say the figure would undoubtedly have been much higher but for some daring rescues by the police and firemen.

Firemen eventually called in heavy earth moving machinery and cranes to speed up rescue operations. The Red Cross reported that the one-hundred-and-fifty people living in the nearby tenements had been left homeless. Police suspect arson.