St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-25
SIX BLOWN TO ATOMS
Appalling Fatality Resulting
From Two Explosions Of
Natural Gas.
Half a Dozen Persons Killed
and as Many More
Missing.
The Total Number of Seri-
ously Injured Is Nearly
Two Score.
Many Are So Mangled and
Manned That They Cannot
Survive.

COLUMBUS, o., Jan. 24.--There is a
scene of death and destruction in this
city tonight whose horrible features
and sickening details are surpassed only
by the Johnstown food. Never in the
history of Ohio has such dreadful dis
aster occurred as that which sent thrills
OF horror through the thousands who
witnessed it tonight. A double eX-
plosion occurred and it dealt out
death with dual force. A few moments
after five o'clock an alarm of fire sounded
calling out the entire department.. The
streets were thronged with thousands of
toilerS who were returning to their
homes from work shops and factories,
and they quickly spread the news that a
frightful calamity had happened in the
southern part of the city. The streets
leading to that section were soon crowd
ed with people going to the scene. Their
presence heaped horror upon horror as
will be seen later on. An explosion had
occurred at the residence of MesSrs.
Michael Bowers and John Marriott, at
the corner of Wall and Noble alleys.
The cause of the calamity was an accu-
the house referred to. The city has re-
Gently been supplied with natural gas,
and leading past the house occupied by
Marri"t and Bowers is one of the mains
through which the commodity is fur
niShed to the public.
THE PIPES HAD LEAKED
and the explosive fuel had found its
way through assures OH the ground to
the cellar which was the seat of the hor-
Tor. 1t became ignited in some I'M
I known manner an I exploded with terri
tlc force, wrecking the building and
filling the air with debris. Mrs. Mar
riot was blown out of the house. and a
man named Goulding, who was stand
ing near the structure, was blown across
the street. Mrs. Marriott was carried
across the street and into the
residence of William James, a
Clock q Beck. DR.. Wisslnger. a prom
lnent physician was called to attend her
injuries. The house where the injured
lay was soon crowded with people at
tracted by the accident and it was soon
necessary to close the doors that no
more might enter. Little knew those
scores of spectators huddled around the
sufferer that they were standing in a
death trap, which was then on the verge
of carrying them into eternity. Sud
denly the air was rent by a
tremendous explosion which made the
earth quake and fill9d the air with fly
ing timbers, bricks and debris of all
kinds. Darkness enSued, and then a
death-like stiffness reigned for few
moments. 1t was broken by ShriekS and
death-groans. The house in which lay
the powerlesS form of Mrs Marriott
HAD BEEN BLOWN TO ATOMS
and the occupants buried beneath the
wreck. Hundreds of spectators who
lined the sidewalks were knocked vio-
lentlY down by the shock and laid
powerleSs. Then to cap the climax a
team of spirited horses attached to one
of the fire department ladder trucks be-
came frenzied by the explosion and
dashed away into the crowd, carving
death in their wake. They ran over
and injured scores of people. A beauti-
full little babe was knocked from its
mothers arms, and, falling beneath the
wheels of the vehicle was crushed to
death. AS soon as the maddened steeds
had disappeared in the darkness, many
of the spectators and tiremen who had
been uninjured by either of the horrors
turned their attention to the digging
out of the persons buried beneath the
ruins of the house. Guided by the
cries and means of the mangled and
dying, men grOped in the dark
ness, pulling out a dead body
here, mangled, yet living form
there, and conveying them to
resting places. Groups of men, women
and children gathered around the pros
trate forms, and blood-curdling shrieks
made the awful scene more revolving
as friends recognized friends, in
jured or dead; parents found
their mutilated children and vice
versa. Pallid, trembling women tottered
and ran across the alley and
streets. moaning or shrieking. Men
with fOreheadS and shoulders drabbled
with blood stag gered from among the
debris. A woman enveloped in a sheet
of flame,
BARE-HEADED AND FRENZIED,
ran shrieking from the house across the
alley. A man dashed off his overcoat
and ran to throw it round her. a fire.
man. who held the nozzle of hose, saw
her danger and turned the stream on
her. 1t knocked her down, but saved
her life from the flames. She was lifted
from the ground and hurried into a
neighboring house. Every inch of cloth
ing had been burned from her down to
her waist. Her name was Pet Merritt.
An old man, venerable, and with white
hair and beard, was dug up from the
ruins and hurried to place where med
ical assistance could be given him. His
frosty beard was covered with blood
and he seemed to be in dying condi-
ton. But saddest of all, a fearless
mother, with her heart frozen by fear
and grief, staggered from the ruins
holding tight to her heart the seemingly
llfeless form Of her three months
old babe. And so on through the long,
sad list of killed and wounded.
The force of the explosion in the Nor
rott and Bowers house took westerly
and northerly direction, and scattered
bricks and lumber and Iathing for a
distance of twenty feet. The side of
the Morrott house was blown out, and
the roof, freed of its support, fell over
and lay, in an almost entire condition,
hanging from the top of the house to
the yard below. The exploded vapor,
after doing its terrible work on
the south side of Noble alley, leaped
over to the north side of the alley and
completely destroyed the house at "a
West Noble. occupied by Edward OTIS
tot and William James. This house
was constructed similarly to the one op-
posite, being one-and-a-half-storv
brick with three rooms down and two
up stairs. Here the terrible
FORCE OF THE EXPLODED GAS
was shown. Everything was blown to
chips. a force of wOrkmen at work for
a week could not reduce the house to
kindlibg wood so thoroughly as did this
explosion in one short moment. The
H..