8 Lives lost
Although technically not a London disaster, this Great Western passenger train left this city bound for Sarnia. It was halfway to the village of Komoka when a fire broke out in the last car. Because an emergency bell cord was not connected, the train’s engineer could not be notified of the blaze. With the car’s front and rear doors open, the moving train fanned the flames, forcing some 50 passengers to jump from the car to avoid incineration. The dead included a baby which perished along with its mother.
(Source: Notebook from Yesterday)
