Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-02
MANS CARELESSNESS.
Fires, Explosions, Collisions and Host
 of Other Accidents.

Fires, Explosions, Collisions and Host
 of Other Accidents.
 Scarcely less appalling than the list of elemental casualties is that of the accidents of 1887, that may be attributed almost wholly to the carelessness of man, the greatest sufferer. The year that is passed will go down in history marked with the shameful record of Chatsworth, Kouts, the Tin Bridge and the Woodstock acci- dents. The worst feature of all these ac- cidents was the dreadful car stove. With out this terrible relic of the primitive in railroading in our trains, few, if any, of the more horrible features of these acci- dents would have had to be recorded, and 1t is gratifying to be able to record the fact that during the past summer many of the best American railroads were very busy at the work of experimenting with steam heating of railroad trains, and this winter not few cars are kept warm with steam supplied direct from the boiler of the locomotive.
 Not less horrible than the railroad acci- dents of 1887, however, were the theatre disasters, and America may congratulate herself that none of the greatest of these calanities took place on her soil. France and England were the sufferers. The problem of safe theatre building has long been known to be an intricate one, but it would seem that only few more such appalling catastrophes as the burning of the Opera Comique in Paris and the Theatre Royal in Exeter would be needed to stimulate some ingenious architect to it's complete solution. An accident of a quite different sort and more terrible in it's possibilities, for tunately not realized in this case, was the explosion of escaped naphtha under four miles of the streets of Rochester, N. Y.; and the possibilities in this case will come home to all dwellers in cities, who inves- tigate the amount of inf1ammable material that is carried under their streets and homes and places of doing business. JANUARY. Adoloschi palace, Rome, burned; damage, $1 900 00O.-Three hundred killed in q fire at Madras, India. 1S Schooner Parallel destroyed by explosion of 1 giant powder at the Golden Gate, San Francisco. l Panic at Spitalheld's theatre London; seven- teen killed.
 l B. One hundred and forty-four killed by fire damp explosion in Belgium.
 6. Eghty-six killed by explosion of Roburite at | St. Etienne France.
 IA. Thirty five killed by railroad accident at the | 'tin bridge" near Boston, Mass.
 1S Ten burned to death at destructive hotel fire l in Buffalo.
 Q. FOrty kHeu Dy Ursaln Ialung CnrOugn bridge | nt Woodstock, Vt.
 12 Hotel fire in Berlin; $1 OOO 900 loss.-Fire in Augusta, Ga.; $2o0, 900 loss.
 % Fire at Chautauqua; $100,OOO loss.
 21. Burning of salt works at Warsaw, N. Y.; $1O0,OO0 loss.
 23 Seventy killed by colliery explosion in New South Wales-Twelve miners burned to death by ire in lodging house in Bessemer, Mich. | APRIL.
 G. Burning of Massachusetts state printers establishment at Boston.
 12: Many ancient buildings destroyed by fire at
 St. Augustine, Fla.
 28. One hundred and fifty drowned by sinking | of steamer Benton off Formosa. MAY.
 4. One hundred and fifty men entombed by mine disaster at Vancouver, British Columbia
 z. Steamer La Champagne lost; 40 lives lost.- 1 Burning of Harlem blaming mills; $500, 900 lost 10. Fire at New Lebanon. N. H.; $25O,000 loss | 12. Fire in Paterson, N. J., iron works; $250,0 ] loss.
 IA. New York hay market, at Thirty-thirt street, burned; S2O0, ,O00. Steamer Empire Stat'
 burned at Bristol, R. l.; $10O, 1000 loss.
 9. Several passengers reported killed by colli sion between White Star steamer Celtic and Brit
 annie
 25 200 burned to death in Theatre Comiqu'
 fire, Paris.
 %. Fire in property of Belt Line railroad o
 New York, 1,5OO horses, $500 worth of propert.
 destroyed.
 2S. Colliery explosion at Glasgow, Stotland; 2 lives lost.-Chicago Dressed Beef company los
 S;5o,cco by fire in Brooklyn. ,I 3. Afqllibg ,tqildins ia Berlin injures sod per sons; inAtty killed.