The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-01-30
a TRIPLE DISASTER.
Double Gas Explosion and Fatal Runaway Y
at Ohios Capital-Nearly Dozen Kill
and Others Frighifully injured.


and Others FriGh;fully injured.
COLUMBUS, o., Jan. 25.--A few min
utes after five o'clock yesterday after
noon an alarm Of fire from the corner of
Main and High streets called the fire de-
partment out and the ncws spread that
there had bean natural gas explosion.
The sharpness Of the day had brought
to the streets thousands of shoppers and
prOmenaders and the crowd thoughtless-
ly rushed to the scene.
The explosion had occurred in the
one story dwelling at the southwest cor
ner of Wall and Noble alleys in the
middle of the square bounded by High,
Front, Main and Mound streets. Patrol
No was on the scene, but no rope was
stretched and the people crowded by
hundreds into the narrow al
ley and pushed up close to the
house, as the cries of injured people
within could be plainly heard.
The city had recently been supplied
with natural gas and leading past the
house occupied by Marriott and Bowers
was one of the mains. This had leaked
and the gas had found its way through
assures in the ground to the cellar and
becoming ignited in some unknown
manner exploded, wrecking the building
and filling the air with debris.
The house where the injured womP n
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. Suddenly the air
was rent by a tremendous explosion,
which made the earth quake and filled
the air with flying timbers, bricks
and debris of all kinds. Dark
ness ensued and then a death
like stiffness reigned for few
moments, broken by shrieks and death
groans. The house in which lay Mrs.
Marriott had been blown to atoms and
its occupants buried beneath the wreck,
and hundreds of spectators who lined
the sidewalks were knocked violently
down by the shock
The people fled, shrieking in all direc-
tions while the alley was instantly COW
cred with a mass of debris from which
the means of the buried came. A mo-
ment later trembling women tottered
and ran across the alleys and streets
shrieking. and men with foreheads and
shoulders drabbled with blood staggered
from among the debris.
Then to cap the climax, a team of splr-
tied horses attached to one of the fire
department trucks became frenzled by
the explosion and dashed through the
crowd in the street carrying death in
their wake. They ran over and injured
scores of people. A little babe was
| knocked out of it's mothers arms and
falling beneath the wheels of the vehicle
was crushed to death.
| As soon as the maddened horses had
disappeared in the darkness many of the
spectators and fremen who had been
uniniured turned their attention to dig
ging out the persons buried beneath the
ruins of the house. Guided by the cries
and means of the mangled and dying,
men groped in the darkness pulling out
dead body here and mangled yet
| living form there and conveying them
to resting places.
1t required several hours tOremove all
the dead from the ruins and it is not yet
known who or how many are the victims.
Following is the list of killed so far as
ascertained: Charles Becht, Mrs. John
| Marriott, an infant son of Charles Berry,
James Seymour, colored boy; white
man. name unknown; babe, parents
| unknown.
The injured were: DIR. 7. X. Wish
niger, badly and probably fatally burned
and bruised; Herman Baker, badly
burned; Daniel Cherry, burned pain
fully: Charles Woodruff, cut and bruised
seriously; Mrs. Fuller, burned and in
iured internally, probably fatally; Pat
rick Suiskie, cut on head: Aaron Beers,
cut on head and face; Benjamin
Morgan, gashes on head and inter
nal injuries; Charles Lowry, burned
and bruised; Albert Ticklider, bruised
and cut; - Brady, burned and cut;
Edward Wiener, cut and burned; Nolt,
cut and burned; Miss Belle Smith, badly
hurt; Mrs. Corn, badly burned; Peter
Marriott terribly burned about the
shoulders and neck; Tom Doyle, hands
burned partially off; Emma Bowers,
probably fatally burned; Marshall Kill
bourne, horrible injuries on neck and
head; William Brady, probably fatally
suffocated; William James, hands and
face roasted, will die; Mrs. William
James, badly cut and bruised.
The explosion as near as can be ascer-
tanned resulted from an accumulation OF
natural gas in the cellar of the house
occupied by Michael Bowers and Mr..
Marriott. No natural gas pipes were
ever put in the house, but the cause was
natural gas main in Noble alley which
leaked. The ground was frozen and the
gas seeking it's way out went by the
easiest way, and of course entered the
cellar. 1t has no scent, and its presence
could not be detected. 1t saturated the
buildings.
Torpedo Boat Launched.