Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-06
WHERE THE HORROR BEGAN.
THE WAVE OF FLOOD AND FIRE BE-
GINS NEAR TITUSvILLE.

| GINS NEAR TITCStlLLE.
Th'rty-Five SOUS Launched Into Eternit.
in That City Alone-A Money Loss O
0I,5OO, O,OOO-The Bursting OF q Dan
Opens the Revelry of Death.
TITUsvILLE, June 81 Special ]-Neve
in the history Of this city, or of the OF
regions, has there been such terrible dis
aster as the one to be chronicled to-day.
The horror has been brought on by boil
flood and fire and at the present writing
fully 81, 500, 600 has gone up in flame ant
smoke, while the loss of life is conserva
lively estimated at fully 35 souls, with tht
chances greatly in favor of that being undel
the mark. This loss is all in this city
while the news from tributary towns shows
a proportionate loss from ravages by flood
Fully one-third of the business and resident
sections of this city is a mass of charred
embers, over which the swift waters still
rush with unabated fury.
The streets are filled with crowds of wet,
hungry, hopeless and despairing men,
women and children, most of whom have
lost their all in both property and loved
ones The water still floods the streets
Evidence of Destruction In the Sky.
The sky is black with heavy smoke from
the burning re6neries, cooper shops, radia-
tor works, hotels. furniture factories,
freight depots, etc. The big refinery and
wax plant owned by +. L. Wood & Co. has
| Just caught, at exactly noon, and the black
smoke blowing directly over the city turns
midday into almost the blackness of night
| As the rain continues to come down in
| bucketfuls, what the outcome is to be is
past even conjecture.
The waters of Oil creek are rushing
through the streets in the lower part of the
city with seemingly resistless force, while
from house tops, windows and DRIFT
wood piles located directly in the midst of
the torrent, come beseeching walls and
screams of anguish from helpless victims.
Brave men with boats and ropes are battling
manfully against the terrific current, and
already hundreds of the captives have been
brought safely to land.
Fifty People Unaccounted For.
It is impossible to give the reader an idea
of the horrible scenes now being enacted
here. People do not as yet realize through
what they are passing. Fully 80 people are
as yet unaccounted for, but in the present
crush and excitement it is out of the ques-
tion to correctly state the number actually
drowned and burned to death.
But two dead bodies have as yet been
taken from the flood Fully 100 of all ages
were seen going down with the flood. Some
of these, no doubt, have secured refuge on
floating timbers, driftwood and miniature
islands. and there cling, awaiting rescue;
but many have, without doubt, been
drowned
Five persons, all males, were seen to per-
ish while grasping piece of timber. Just
as the thousands of spectators who were
looking on with bated breath, unable to
render the slightest assistance, were led to
believe that the sufferers would safely reach
land a neighboring tank of burning oil ex-
ploded in close proximity, and in a moment
the doomed men were enveloped in flames,
and death came speedily to end their suffer-
ings.
A Mother and Her Babe Lost.
Scores of like cases are reported. Among
them is that of a mother with her babe
with the other she clung to piece of
plank. The piece of wood dritted with
great force directly toward the D., A. V. &;
P R. r. depot, around which the water
was rushing at depth of five feet. So
swift had been the current that large hole
had been washed in under the platform of
the station. As the mother and babe
reached this point the suction was so great
that it drew them in, and they disappeared
to never more appear alive.
The almost constant rains of the past
month caused the earth to be so thoroughly
filled that it would hold no more; therefore
the heavy downpour Of Saturday and Satur-
day night caused more of the small streams
to overflow their banks. Early in the even
ing Church run, in the northern part of the
city, gave much trouble. About midnight
Oil creek suddenly began to rise.
The Floods Came Too Swiftly for Escape.
So swift was the inundation that the
food was in before the residents were aware
of the danger, and not more than half of
them managed to reach higher ground. The
suddenness of the rise of this historical old
waterway was laterly explained by the in
telllgence that the huge mill dam of Thomp-
son s. Eldred, at Spartansburg, about seven
made by this dam was one and one-half
miles in length by one-quarter mile in
breadth. and the great food thus suddenly
let loose made of this devoted valley, in the
course of only few moments, a roaring
Amazon. The fire boxes of the boilers at the |
City Water and Electric Light Works were
quickly flooded, thus throwing the city into |
almost total darkness, and rendering the |
hydrants useless for fire purposes.
Notwithstanding this state of affairs, the |
danger to the city was underrated, no one |
having the slightest idea that the ravages |
being made by the flood were to be quickly |
by that other dreaded terror, |
fire. At o'clock A. NJ, a dull, heavy e1-
plosion. followed by more Of the same char
acter, was heard, and Immediately heavy
streak of lurid flame, fully 200 feet in
heighth, pierced the inky darkness and
threw a glaring light over the vast expanse
Of angry waters.
Ihe Refinerirs Began to Burn.
At once the cry rang out from thousand
throats that the Crescent Oil Refinery,
owned by John Schwartz & Co., and located
close to the northern bank of the creek in
The East End, was on fire. Never before
did fire seem to spread so rapidly, and in
less than three minutes from tie time the
explosion was heard the vast plant was one
sheet Of flame.
Then it was that pandemonium seemed to
break loose. Thousands of people rushed
pell nell through the streets, tumbling
over and knocking each other down in their
aimless endeavors to escape from what they
appeared to imagine was the crack of doom.
The bright light thus thrown on the sur
revealed an appalling sight. On
The roots and in the windows of the upper