Death in the Rue Neuve

It was "U.S. Parade" at L'Tnnovation, Brussels' second biggest department store, and more than $1,000,000 in American-made goods were on sale at its six-story downtown store and four outlying branches. Bruxellois by the thousands jammed the main store situated on Rue Neuve to examine and buy American household gadgets, costume jewelry, sporting goods and nearly every kind of apparel, including paper dresses. Few paid much attention to picketing by pro-Peking youths or to the anti-U.S. tracts they passed out. To make the occasion thoroughly American, L'Tnnovation officials had splashed red, white and blue decorations and U.S. travel posters throughout the store.

Living Torch. At the height of the midday shopping hour, Catherine Seydel, a 22-year-old student, picked out a dress she liked and entered a third-floor booth to try it on. Suddenly she heard a thunderous rumble on the floor above her. When she emerged from the booth, she entered a maelstrom of fear and panic. In rapid succession, flames had erupted in at least three locations around the store. Two of the store's 15 full-time firemen--the building had no sprinklers--tried to douse the flames with hand extinguishers, but retreated in the fast-gathering heat and smoke. Panic seized the some 3,000 people in the store (including 1,200 employees) as the fire spread unchecked, feeding on the inflammable goods and fanned by a chimney-like draft from the store's cavernous central well.

Shoppers and store workers clawed their way to escalators and exits, blinded by the thickening smoke. Many were trampled in the stampede. Some, like Mme. Seydel, reached windows and managed to escape without serious injury. Others found windows jammed or locked and had to smash through to exterior ledges and balconies; still others clambered to neighboring rooftops. Brussels firemen threaded through the narrow old streets within ten minutes of the first alarm, but helplessly watched many people jump or burn to death before they could raise their ladders or spread their nets. "One man was transformed into a living torch before my eyes as he hesitated to leap from a high window," said Fireman Jacques Mesmans. Others, luckier, landed atop parked cars and escaped with bruises and broken bones. Amid the panic, the flames climbed to the roof, where bottles of butane gas for sale to campers sealed the building's fate with a staccato of explosions.

Suspicion of Arson. By week's end 61 bodies had been recovered, many burned beyond identification. But the toll could reach more than 300, since 250 were still missing. It was, by any count, Brussels' worst fire and the most devastating one worldwide since 323 persons perished in a circus blaze in Brazil in 1961. Brussels Mayor Lucien Cooremans said that it would take a month or so to comb through the tangled debris, which still smoldered days later. Store officials estimated the property loss at $23 million.

Police made the rounds of leftist-extremist haunts to check out suspicions of arson, which arose because of the nearly simultaneous eruption of fire in several places and the threatening tone of the anti-American propaganda. Whatever the cause of the tragedy, it momentarily united Belgium's often bitterly divided Flemings and Walloons as few events have done in their stormy past. The nation as one expresses its grief this week when one of the unidentified victims is borne into Brussels' Sacre-Coeur basilica to symbolize all the dead at a mass funeral service.

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