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GV PAN two building covered in flames
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SV Firemen and helpers direct hose at fire (2 shots).
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GV Buildings burning and walls collapsing with firemen in fore-ground.
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GV Burning building (2 shots)
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SV Firemen assess damage with gutted buildings in background the following morning. (2 shots).
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GV ZOOM OUT burned out buildings.
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Initials APSM/2206



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A vast fire swept through the city of Chelsea near Boston, Massachusetts, int he United States, on Sunday night (October 14-15) destroying about 25 city blocks and leaving 3,000 people homeless.

Thousands were evacuated as the flames leapt from block to block. A fire chief said it was a miracle no one was killed.

Chelsea serves as a storage area for 138 million gallons of petroleum products and it is the second time this century huge areas have been razed. The National Board of Fire Underwriters say the city has the highest fire risk in the United States.

Fireman from all over Massachusetts, and the neighbouring States of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, took seven hours to control the blaze. Two dozen firemen were treated in hospital and several others at the scene. One journalist present was reminded of the fire storms in Tokyo and Dusseldorf during World War Two.

The fire started in an old warehouse near the docks, but Chelsea Fire Chief Herbert Fothergill said the cause was unknown. He called the city a Huge tenement.

Almost all the buildings were wooden and had been built after the 1908 fire. Many of the 3,000 homeless are Spanish-speaking from tenements near the docks.