The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-06-03
GAS EXPLOSION.
A Photograph Esiablishment Cleaned out
and Five Persons Injured.

A very serious gas explosion took place in
the Photographic establishment of Me- G. B.
Conant, at No. 2571 Middle street, yesterday
morning. Mr.. Conant occupies rooms in the
Hanson block on Middle street. opposite the
junction of Erect street. The third story of
this block contains three rooms, reception
room in front and finishing room in the rear,
with small room in the center connecting the
other two, while the upper story is used for an
operating room. Mr., Conant has not been us
ing gas of late. but early in the week he called
upon the gas company and asked to have
meter set. When the meter was put in leak
was noticed. and the gas man was asked to stop
it, but he replied that it was not his business
and departed. Mr.. Conant sent to Mr.. Ken
meth Mcdonald Thursday night asking that
man be sent to stop the leak. Mr.. Mcdonald
sent his brother, John, who searched diligently
but failed to discover the leak. When the clerk
arrived yesterday morning he noticed that the
gas was still escaping, and after opening all the
windows, he sent for the same gas filter to
make another search. While boy was gone
after a gas filter the clerk discovered the
gas coming from gas pipe in the ceiling OF
the center room. To prevent further waste
of gas he procured cork stopper with which
he stopped the flow. The gas man soon arrived
and procuring fight of steps, proceeded to
put on a cap in place of the cork. While do
ing this the clerk and Richard Craig, one of the
assistants in the establishment, steadied the
steps. The smell of gas was SO strong that Mr..
Mcdonald was obliged to come down from the
steps three times to get his breath. and when
he came down the last time the clerk left Mr..
Craig to hold the steps and went into the ope-
rating rooms above, leaving Mcdonald anG
Craig in this room alone, Miss Hooper, re-
TOUGHER of negatives, in the reception room,
and Miss. Kimbal, one of the finishers, in the
rear room.
After screwing on the cap. Mr. Mcdonald
lighted match and applied it to the pipe to
see if the leak was stopped. The experiment
was not very satisfactory, as further results
showed. There was one loud explosion and all
was quiet. The open doors and windows were
all that saved the building from complete
wreck. As it was, the contents of the second
story were completely wrecked. The doors lead
ing to the reception room was torn off its hinges
and carried half way up stairs, breaking the
banisters. The door leading from the reception
to the center room was torn to pieces and hurl-
ed into the latter room, while the four occu-
pants were thrown about very carelessly. Mr..
Mcdonald was thrown from his high position
to one end of the room. burning his face and
hands badly and cutting his right hand severe
ly as he fell. Mr.. Craig was thrown across the
room and badly burned. Miss Klmball was
thrown from her seat and her face and hands
burned quite badly. Miss Hooper escaped
terrible death by chance. A moment befor
the explosion she was seated at a table befor
the open window, but just before the shock
came she got up and stood between the win
dows. When the explosion came the chair and
two tables before the window were hurled across
the street with great violence. A bird cage
containing bird was thrown into Hays apoth-
ecary store, but when it struck the bird was not
there. A picture hanging between the windows
was taken from the frame and carried clear
across the street. Nearly all the elegant frames
and pictures in the reception room were smash
ed. This room was indeed a sorry sight to be-
hold. The plastering was torn off in many places
and the walls badly cracked. The injury to
the building will be about $780, while Mr.. Con-
ants loss must be near $1,000.
Mr.. Mcdonald was able to converse last eve
ming although he was suffering pretty severely.
He says it is not true that he came down off
the steps three times tc get his breath, but on
the contrary he says that he could not smell the
gas at all when he lighted the match. After
the explosion he went up Middle street and
down Federal to his brothers shop unasssted.
The statement in regard to his coming down to
get his breath was obtained from the clerk,
who was present and saw the whole affair.