The rustler., 1891-09-04
FEARFUL CALAMITY.
Fatal Boiler Explosion In q Build
ing at New York.
tn. struetaFe F.lis 60 the Greuna and the
nains Take Fire-FIity rer.aas Crashed
er harmed 60 Death wlthsat
Moments waralng.

NEw YoRK. Aug. a4-A most disas-
trous and terrible explosion occurred
Saturday afternoon at 1880 o'clock In
Park place. between Greenwich street
and College place. just At the time when
the street was flled with hurrying peo-
pie and heavily laden wagons and
trucks
Without a moments warning whole
block Of buildings swarming with busy
workmen collapsed as the result Of a
mysterious explosion. and an appalling
loss Of life IS beyond all doubt
The number of the dead is variously
estimated at from fifteen to fully a
hundred and only thorough search Of
the ruins will establish the full extent
Of the calamity.
In the restaurant on the ground floor
OF No. "A. which was kept BY ]. Peter
son, there were a crowd of persons at
lunch. The number il estimated at
the time OF the explosion at between
twenty-five and thirty-fve. Then there
were n number Of girls In the wash
room in the basement
Trippc & Co, druggists at 20 and ~
Park place, also had large number Of
employees
First a small, white, vaporish cloud
burst forth from the ground floor of 20.
~ and "a Park place; then was heard a
| dull, deep sullcn roar. This was fol-
lowed by an eruption and a mass of
brick, stone aud timber was hurlad
thirty feet hcavenward
No more than n second could possi-
bly, have elapsed before the front walls
Of 20, - and - fell crashing into the
street The great walls slowly rolled
and swelled out with on undulating
motion until they gave way and in
moment there was not stick or stone
standing abeve the first floor between
the dividing walls.
The walls of the standing buildings
were jagged, as the bricks were torn out
In places They did not retain the
slightest semblancc OF what had been
three seconds before an apparently
strong and well constructed building
Suddenly fire burst ont in darlly
colorcd flames from the third, fourth
and fifth stories of that part of the
building on Park place next to Green
wich street, occupied by Lindsay's type
foundry. The floors and the other parts
OF the place were saturated with oil or
other inilammable matter which fed
the flames generously. A murmur ran
through the throng that the build
ing was lost and the multitude shud-
dered Mt thoughts of the fate of the
occupants of the ruined and burning
part of the building.
As soon rs the flames were under
control the work of recovering the
bodies of the unfortunate persons who
were buried beneath the ruins was be-
gun by about forty firemen, who
climbed upon the great heap of bricks
that filed the street.
After twenty minutes work the men
saw the dead body of a man down in
the heap Of brick, and then cleared
away the mass in an astonishing short
space OF time. At 2:20 o'clock the body
was recovered. 1t was burned and
charred so that the features were un-
recognizable.
About fifteen minutes after the first
body was taken out the firemen came
across another body of man lying
under n piece of the roofing near the
side entrance. The man was apparently
80 years old. His legs, hands and face
were badly burned.
Thirteen out of seventeen bodies re-
covered have been identified.