The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-21

GRAND AND TERRIBLE SIGHT
Flames Ascend 200 Feet and illuminate
the Country for Twenty Miles.
The Roar Of the Confagration Distinctly
Audible at a Distance of Five Miles
The Blazing Gas at Murraysville.

PITTsBURG, March 20.-Dispatches from Muir
raysville tonight report a serious condition Of
affairs. There are FIVE wells pouring all their
gas into the mains of the Charters company,
which are broken. The result is that the gas
goes into the open air and spreads through the
town The well which is on fire is big one,
and the flame is shooting up $50 feet. AS the
wind is very strong, there is great danger that
the other wells will take fire. There is no pros
pect, just now, of the Charters company being
able to shut off the gas, as the pipes are burned
off close to the ground. If the other wells
are ienited and the fire spreads to the
gas which is floating in the town,
there will be succession of explosions and
fires The Philadelphia Natural Gas Company
have great deal of property in the vicinity. and
have been doing all they can to prevent the
spread of the IRE. A special train has been
sent out from Pittsburg by the Philadelphia
company, with fifty mon on board to work on
the broken main. Cots and other necessities for
the wounded of yesterdays explosion have also
been sent to Murraysville by the same company.
The people are moving their goods from their
houses along the line near the leak Two of the
Taylor family, who were burned yesterday. are
dead. and three other persons are expected to
die
LATER.-At midnight the flames were burning
fercer than ever, but, through the efforts of the
three hundred workmen of the Philadelphia and
CHARTERS companies. they were held within
bounds. There are three breaks in the sixteen
inch main, from which the flames are leaping hun
dreds Of feet in the air, Illuminating the country
for twenty miles. The excitement is intense,
and thousands of people focking into the
town from all sections. Two hundred men, in
charge of Superintendent Gillspie, of the Phil
adelphia company, are digging a ditch for the
purpose of getting at the pipes under ground.
They are fifty feet from the fire, but the
heat is so intense that they are wear
ing wet cloths on their heads and
stream of water is constantly playing over
them. A two-story frame house has just been
pulled down to prevent the spread of the flames.
The derricks Of the King well, No. 8, and Will
hanson well have also been torn down, and wa
ter is being constantly poured on the other
derricks in the vicinity. People living
withing 200 yards of the burning
gas have been driven from their houses by the
heat, while the air is sitting from the escaping
gas. Arrangements have been made to send a
detachment of Battery B, P. N. g.. from Pitts
burg, in the morning. to cut off the connections
of the pipe by firing shot into it. If the ex-
pertinent is successful it will prevent the
spreading of the confagration, and proba-
bly, extinguish it. 1t is estimated by
the Philadelphia company officials that 8, 1000 900
cubic feet of gas are burning and 9,0O0 COO cubic
feet escaping every hour. The roar of the gas
can be heard at Monroeville, FIVE miles away.
No person in the town has gone to bed tonight.
The streets are thronged with people, and the
hotels are crowded with curious strangers
Another death from yesterdays explosion has
just occurred-Miss Lacock, the young lady who
was visiting at the Taylor house at the time
died in great agony shortly before midnight.
One more of the Taylor family is likely to die.
The others will recover