The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-04-24
Harper's Weekly.

An explosion of natural gas, peculiar
in its cause and shocking in its conse-
quences, occurred at the little village of
Murrysville, in Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, on the 10Th of March.
The Chantiers Gas Company was en-
gagged in making connections from
new and abundant we'll to their main
line, when the pipe suddenly broke, and
the gas, rushing forth in enormous VOL
ume, filled the air, and penetrated all
the houses in the immediate vicinity.
Among these dwellings was one occu-
pied by a Mrs Taylor, her father-in-law,
and three children. The entire family,
and Miss Laycock, who was living
with the Taylors, were driven from the
house by the insufera BILE odor of the
gas, and were standing upon the front
porch, when, the gas suddenly igniting
at the fire in an open CRATE, there was
terrific explosion, and In an instant the
house was mass of flames. The cloth
ing of the unfortunate people caught
fire, and they were all terribly burned,
Mrs. Taylor and two of her children
and Miss Laycock having since died
from their injuries.
In less than five minutes after the ex-
plosion all the houses in the neighbor-
hood were in flames, and seven of them
were destroyed. 1t was late in the af-
ternoon when the explosion took place,
and nightfall added to the terrors and
decentralization of the inhabitants of the
little town. The air was so impregnated
with gas as to be almost unendurable,
and the flames from the broken pipe
shot upward for more than hundred
feet in the air, the roar of the confagra-
tion being audible at Monroeville, five
miles away. Five enormous gas wells
poured into the pipes of the Chantiers
Company, and it was estimated that
three million cubic feet of gas were be-
ing burned hourly, and that thrice that
amount was escaping unconsumed. Some
frame buildings were hurriedly torn
down to stop the spread of the confa-
grafton in the village, and the women
and children were, for the most part,
removed to a distance, all the neighbor-
ing farm-houses being speedily filled
with the refugees. A special train with
re-enforcements of men to fight the fire
was sent from Pittsburgh, but the heat
from the great fountain of fame that
arose from the broken main was so in
tense little could be done to shut it off.
At midnight it was discovered that there
were three breaks in the sixteen-inch
main. Two hundred men, in charge
of brave superintendent, set to work
to dig ditch approach to the blazing
pipe. The men wore wet cloths wrapped
about their faces, but were unable to
approach nearer than fifty feet. Mean
time arrangements were made with Bat
terry B of the Pennsylvania National
Guard to attack the confagration by
shooting hole in the gas-main above
the point of leakage. Through twenty
c6 sdh cshnoh bef56gglN 70 la rsiP baf
terry was dragged to the fire. One hun
dred men were at work at the time dig
ging trench and tunnel to the base of
the stand pipe, which was red-hot from
the ground to its top, forty five feet in
the air. 1t was decided to postpone
the attempt of shooting the pipe until
another plan had been tried. This plan
proved effectual. The workmen sue
ceeded in reaching the pipe, and hav-
ing, under cover of fire shield, chisell-
ed it, attached an immense chain to the
upper part of the pipe, by which it was
eventually forced over and broken. An
arrangement on the principle of an old
fashioned candle snuffer was then forged,
and by dint of much hard work was
gotten over the main pipe where it had
been broken off, and the gas supply from
the well was effectually cut off.