Ten members of Habonim, the Labor Zionist Youth movement, were hospitalized and 23 others slightly injured when the bus in which they were returning from a four-day visit to a Zionist training farm in Britain caught fire. Six passengers were unhurt.
Fifteen ambulances took the injured young Zionists to hospitals in three towns, where their condition was reported today to range from “fair” to “satisfactory.” The incident occurred in Westmorland as the bus was returning the 39 Habonim members to their homes in Glasgow after the visit to the David Eder farm in Sussex.
Eyewitnesses said that the vehicle was suddenly enveloped in smoke and flames. The young passengers smashed bus windows and jumped to safety, some with their clothing and hair ablaze. The injured youth were taken initially to a nearby farm where owner Harriet Steel tore up sheets to make bandages. She reported that “some of them were pathetic sights with their clothing practically burned off their backs.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
