Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-12-29
FIVE MET THEIR DEATH
Result of Long Island City's
Dynamite Explosion.
TWENTY-THREE OTHERS INJURED.

Knows Exactly How the Explosion Oc-
curred-Houses in the Immediate vicin-
ity wrecked-The Horror Intensified by
Fire-Twenty Families Homeless.
LONG ISLAND CITY, Dec. 29.-The ex-
plosion yesterday was very disastrous in
its consequences. Five persons are dead,
two are fatally hurt, and 20 others are
more or less seriously wounded. While
the damage to property in the vicinity is
not so great as at first reported, it will
amount to many thousand dollars.
The explosion shook the length and
breadth of the city, causing the most in
tense excitement, which continues, though
in a gutter, but sadder, manner to-day.
The following is a complete list of the
killed and wounded as far as can be as
certained up to II a. m. this morning:
DEAD.
MARY GRADEN, aged 81, waitress.
HENRY O'BRIEN, grocer's clerk, aged SO.
Mrs. Rocco the wife of Peter Rocco,
barber.
JOHN HOPKINS, aged %, proprietor of
restaurant.
NICOLA LoDANo, brother of Mrs. Rocco.
WOUNDED.
Mrs Julia Henry, cut in the throat,
Qeau anu ny SletSS eAO GCCoAf0O d
severe shock.
Peter McEntee, foreman on the tunnel
work, head, legs and arms terribly cut and
several bones broken.
Mrs. Mary Maher, cut about head and
arms.
Daniel Maher, cut about head and body
and lost left eye.
Mary Creighton, lost an eye and badly
cut about the head and body; will proba-
bly, die
Edward Delaney, skull fractued, both
eyes injured; will die.
Petro Rocco, cut about head and body.
Joseph Way, back punctured.
Minnie Davren, serious injuries to head
and body.
John Davren, badly cut about head and
face.
John w. Davren, cut about head and
hands.
Matilda Ryan, cut about head.
John Purcell, seriously injured by fall
| ing timbers.
William johnson, cuts and bruises on
| head and body.
James Murphy, cuts on head.
Mrs. Mary Rogers and son John Rogers.
| Both badly cut about head.
Max Hayes, severely cut on back of
| head.
| Mr.. and Mrs Frank Wildey, cuts on
| head.
Mrs Kate o. Brien, face and hands bad
| ly cut.
| William Krepp, head cut.
John Palmer head and hands cut.
Mrs. Stein and daughter, three years
old. Both severely cut and child lost one
eye.
| Alderman James Comisky, head cut.
The scene of the explosion is in the
| most thickly settled portion of Hunters
Point. Seventeen families occupied the
buildings in the vicinity. The tunnel
| compaRy's shaft is about % feet long by
| II feet wide.
No one has yet been found who can tell
exactly how the explosion occurred, but
the following facts have been learned.
Some fifty cartridges of powder had
been brought from the storage house on
the meadows to be prepared for sending
down to the drillers working in the head =
ing, which is being blasted out under
Fourth street at depth of So feet.
AS the explosive was frozen, Foreman
McEntee placed the cartridges in the
steamchests to thaw them out. They had
been there about 10 minutes when the
explosion occurred.
| The effect of the explosion on the
houses was terrible. Every window sash
I in the rear was ripped out and the glass
driven, pieces OF all sizes, through the
rooms, and those in the front We're blown
out.
| owreck was ever more complete. A
strip of the rear brick wall, about ten
feet wide, extending from basement to
roof, fell in with d terrible crash.
| Amid the confusion could be heard the
cries of the wounded and the means of
the dying.
Mrs Retro Rocco was the first victim
whose body was found.
Then the body of Mary Graden, the
waitress, was found on the floor of the
staurant kitchen and near her were the
proprietor, John Hopkins, and his asss-
tant, Edward Delaney.
| Both the latter were unconscious, their
| faces being terribly mutilated.
| On the floor of the BARRIERS shop lay the
| body of u man who was too much distig-
| ured to be recognizable at the time. The
man was still alive. He was afterwards
identified as Nicola Lodano, Mrs. Rocco's
| brother
The ambulance of St. Johns Hospital
and a corps of doctors arrived simultane-
| ously and the wounded were quickly re-
moved to the hospital. Then the dead
and dying We're taken to stores near by.
| The last victim taken out was Henry
| o Brien, the young grocer, who was car
ried to the station house, where he died a
few minutes after reaching there.
While all this was going the horror
of the occasion was intensified by the
| bursting out of flames on the third
floor of one of the apartment buildings.
The flames spread rapidly and before the
iremen got them under control, nearly
the whole row of buildings were Quilted.
The damage was not confined to the
fats. For half mile in every direction
the window panes, large and small, III
the stores and houses, were blown out
falling on the heads of many people
| passing along the streets by which means
many were cut and otherwise injured.
At least 20 families were rendered
homeless, most of them losing furniture,
clothing and everything that they pos
sessed except the few things ON theil
backs.
FOR half mile, Jackson and Vernon
avenus present u peculiar sight. Hardly
an unbroken pane of glass can be founC
within that radius.
Gary's refrigerator factory on Fourth
street, opposite the scene of the explo
4 - IL II roI