DISASTER AT THE ROGERS CENTRE.
27 KILLED, 100'S INJURED IN STAMPEDE.
Toronto (CP). Disaster struck at 8:21 pm. last night at Toronto's Rogers Centre, formerly known, from 1989, as the SkyDome. At the bottom of the fifth inning, during a sold out baseball game hosted by the Toronto Blue Jays against the Chicago Cubs, witnesses reported a roofing panel that appeared loose and ready to fall onto the crowded stands.
Panic spread quickly among the fans despite police, security and Jumbotron reassurances that the roof was stable. Millions watched the live broadcast on TSN as, at first, single individuals, then large groups of people attempted to flee the stands. What began as a panic situation confined to the 300 section on the second baseline, soon spread to the entire stadium.
Information collected after this tragedy confirms that a rumour spread quickly through the stadium to the effect that the entire roof was unstable and near to collapse.
The scene, according to witnesses present, was complete pandemonium. Reinforcements sent by police began to assist in the evacuation of the stadium but they were overrun in moments. The exit stairwells quickly clogged with frantic fans, making escape impossible.
Thousand of people began to flood the field attempting to locate missing loved-ones and friends. The entire incident lasted less than 20 minutes.
In the aftermath, the bodies of those trampled in the stampede began to be discovered. The field was cleared to create a makeshift hospital and morgue. The injured were triaged on the field and then rushed by waiting ambulance to St. Michael's Hospital. Reports vary on the numbers of seriously and critically injured but estimates remain in the hundreds. Rescue work continued into the night. The Ministry of Health has launched a coroner's inquest into the deaths.
Officials at the Rogers Centre held an emergency press conference at 12:00 pm. EST. They insisted that an inspection carried out soon after the tragedy failed to reveal any irregularities or structural faults in the roof. They offered sincere condolences to the families and friends of the lost. When questioned about the causes of the stampede, Mark Richardson, head of the management consortium, responded that it 'appeared to be a case of mass hysteria' but could not comment further.
Dr. Graeme Smith, professor of psychology at McGill University, was contacted by phone at his home in Montreal. He informed this reporter that 'mass hysteria occurs when fear of an impending threat spreads among people made unable or unwilling to evaluate their own safety status'. He continued, advising that sports events or other collections of people that are 'similarly inspired' are prime locations for mass hysteria to express itself.
The names of the dead have not yet been released, pending notification of next of kin.
It was awful. I can't find my buddy, Eric, but I don't wanna go down there and look. I don't know what to do.
We was sittin' there with our beers and, like, watching the game when I seen this guy and he's pointin' at the roof, eh. I showed him to Eric and we started to laugh, like, 'there ain't no ball up there, dude'. Anyways, I heard some people shoutin' somethin' like 'the roof is movin' or somethin' like that there. And I says to Eric, like, 'duh, yeah, they close the roof sometimes, you dumb ass' and we was laughin' like crazy. But then they kept shoutin' and shit and some people are startin' to push out.
That's when the police came and they're, like, sayin' 'it's OK, there's nothing wrong with the roof' so we're lookin' up and seein' if there's somethin' wrong with the roof 'cause they're sayin' there ain't. And these people are sayin' that there's a bit of the roof that's gonna come down on us and we don't see nuthin' but we're lookin' up.
That's when Eric says he seen a bit of the roof move, like, a big piece of metal or somethin' so we're startin' to get scared and there's more people shoutin' and pushin' now so we figgered maybe they're right and we should just get the hell out of there 'cause it don't look so good.
Anyways there's more cops and security by now and they're all tellin' us to stay put and it's, like, fuck that, I don't want no piece of roof fallin' on me. So we was, like, tryin' to get out but, by now, there's all kinds of people movin' and tryin' to get to the stairs but they're already full of people and we couldn't go nowhere. So we starts climbin' over the seats headin' down toward the field, eh. I was ahead of Eric and I was kinda steppin' onto the backs of the chairs from one row to the next.
But people are screamin' now and I keep tryin' to stay out of the way 'cause they're runnin' everywhere. I was real scared by then 'cause I figgered that somethin' was really happening and I damn better get out of the way. So I looked back and I saw Eric fall down and I shouted back to him and I stopped and there was people running all over the place. I thought I saw him get up so I kept jumpin' over the seat backs 'til I got to the bottom but when I got there I couldn't see him no more.
I seen some stuff that I'm gonna remember forever but I don't want to. I seen this little girl and she had this pink and yellow dress on and pink and yellow rubber boots and she was, like, layin' on the steps and all these runnin' people was, like, steppin' on her like it wasn't nuthin' 'cause they was just thinkin' about getting' out. And I seen this big guy pushin' people outta the way 'cause he's real big and he just punched this other guy in the back of the head to make him move outta the way and the other guy went down like a sack of potatoes and then they was just steppin' on him.
Now they're tellin' us there ain't nuthin' wrong with the roof and I'm, like, sayin' 'why didn't you tell us that before?' 'cause I can't find Eric and we was best buds for, like, ten years and I don't wanna know that they ran all over him.
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