People jumped out of the window during Budapest’s biggest department store fire
One of the biggest fires in Budapest’s history broke out on August 24, 1903, when the huge, multi-storey Párisi Nagy Department Store was engulfed in flames – as a result of insufficient safety measures. Dozens of people were trapped inside the popular department store, many of whom tried to escape by jumping out of windows.
From a small bazaar to a huge fashion hall
The history of the Párisi Áruház began in 1891, when the food textile manufacturer and entrepreneur Goldberger Sámuel Gottlieb opened his small bazaar on the ground floor of a newly built four-story house at Kerepesi (now Rákóczi) út. 38, at the corner of Klauzál utca. Goldberger found the location for his shop with excellent sense: the always-busy boulevard, where a horse-drawn carriage also ran, was full of passers-by, who could easily be lured into the little bazaar to look to their heart’s content among the cheap carpets, crockery, hats, shirts, stockings, and other articles of clothing.
No wonder that the business flourished quickly and demanded more and more space due to the great interest: From the profits, Goldberger claims the entire lower floor of the building, the courtyard, the cellar and the doorway, and soon the entire first floor and the ground floor of the neighboring building became his. The resulting fashionably and ostentatiously named Grand Magazin de Paris (Grand Magazin de Paris) a shopping palace of an unprecedented size it faced three streets and employed more than 250 employees; a glass roof was built above the courtyard, customers could use wooden stairs to move between the floors, and on the ground floor, visitors were enticed by shop windows loaded with bussiness.
The Great Párisi Department Store and its surroundings at the turn of the centurySunday News / Arcanum Digital Science Library
The owner’s business philosophy was based on the principle that a little goes a long way: he bought the goods in large quantities, in bulk, so he got them cheaper, and then sold them on with a profit of a few pennies; customer-attracting promotions were common, and at the turn of the century, the parcel service started – to send the goods of the sellers. The latter only increased its turnover even more, attracting a lot of customers to the Paris Department Store, and with the intention of continuing to look for stores and extra work for employees, who were readily available to customers and tried to fulfill even the most impossible wishes.
The fire was caused by human error
In Goldberger’s megastore, the goods literally reached the walls and the ceiling – the sellers could often only reach the higher shelves using ladders – but safety was completely neglected in the overcrowded spaces, which is how the Hungarian capital happened one of the most serious fire disasters. On August 24, 1903, at 7 o’clock in the evening, as usual, the decorative lighting of the shop window was switched on, at which time due to faulty insulation, a short circuit occurred, a spark occurred, and flames erupted and then began to spread in the spaces of the wide fashion hall.
An employee noticed the window on fire, but at that time the fire did not seem dangerous, so the 150 employees in the store started saving the more valuable goods instead of evacuating themselves. Flames are too much for an easily flammable piece of clothing, but wooden tables are too much for clothing. they spread like lightning, they soon flooded the entire department store and spread to the top two levels of the building, where there were rental apartments. Employees and customers on the ground floor quickly caught him on the run and successfully got out of the building – some with burns – however, those on the first floor and the residents of the upper levels were stuck inside the giant building.
Police cordon off the scene the day after the fireSunday News / Arcanum Digital Science Library
The fire engulfed the windows of the doorway, where the only exit of the house was, and then spread to the exit from the upper floors, which was only two meters wide, so those who remained inside had only one option, to escape further and further up from the spreading flames. Fortunately, many of the residents were on vacation on August 20, however, dozens of people were still stuck inside the building, who eventually sought refuge on the fourth floor. The fire department ten minutes after the flames broke out arrived at the scene: in addition to the delay, several other factors hindered them from saving, for example, since there had never been a store fire in this country before, they were not prepared for the situation, and the most important tools, such as the steam injector and the ladder, arrived with an additional twenty-minute delay.
Ferenc József himself visited the survivors
The firefighters had no other choice, they stretched huge tarps in front of the department store, and the people crowded on the top floor – including children – were forced to jump down if they didn’t want to burn inside the building. THE awesome jump it doesn’t always work out exactly several lost their way, landed on the cobblestones instead of the tarpaulins, and crushed themselves to death: among them was the wife of one of the co-owners, Henrik Goldberger, who came home from vacation that very day and died a few minutes after being transported to the neighboring Rókus hospital.
The building of the department storeStamp World / Arcanum Digital Science Library
The flames burned throughout the night and spread to the neighboring houses, the firemen were able to do so only after a long battle that lasted until morning to contain the fire; the rescue was further complicated by the crowd of thousands gathered in the street, many of whom started looting. The mayor of Budapest, József Márkus, also appeared on the scene, and every half hour he sent a situation report to the Buda Castle to the Emperor Ferenc József, who was staying there. A total of twelve people died in the disaster, only one of whom was an employee of the store. the others were all taken from among the residents; the next day, the monarch personally visited the wounded taken to the Rókus hospital, and sent 5,300 crowns to the relatives of the deceased – for whom a collection was also started.
The new Párisi Áruház is even more magnificent than its predecessor
Sámuel Goldberger – who was never held responsible for the disaster – did not grieve for long at the burning of his department store and the destruction of most of the stock; he soon started working at the reopening of the Párisi Nagy Áruház and on its repeated flourishing. Store moved to Andrássy út 39, in the former building of the Terézváros Casino It opened its doors in March 1911, according to the press of the time, the beautiful Art Nouveau palace was decorated among the other buildings “like a jewel on the neck of a proud lady”.
Emperor Franz Joseph visits the Rókus HospitalSunday News / Arcanum Digital Science Library
The new Paris Store is coming soon it became the beauty and pride of the capital, and did an incredible traffic, owing in large part to the cheap prices of the immense stocks; the owner learned from his previous mistake and already implemented thorough, strict fire safety measures in the building. The palace survived the Second World War siege of Budapest intact and with minor damage, it was later nationalized and then used as a book warehouse for many years; In 1958, the Fashion Hall finally opened in the building, and in 1967 the art nouveau masterpiece was protected as a monument.
Nowadays the former Fashion Hall The Andrássy Experience Center operates on the ground floor and first floor, offices are located on the other floors, and there is a bar on the roof terrace.
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