The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-01-05
NATURAL GAS EXPLODES.
Serious Results Of a Chicago Con-
fagration.
THE FIREMEN TERRIBLY BURNED.
Donoliue q Hennebury's Building the
Scene of Terrific Explosion-Firemen
and Employees of the Firm Among tho
Victims.

CHICAGO. Jan 5--Fire in the thirteen
story building, 40z to 4a5 Dearborn street,
occupied by Donohue & Henneherry, print
ers and publishers, yesterday, caused an
explosion of natural gas, which blew out
the entire front Of the building.
The Natural Gas company was engaged
In putting pipe into saloon adjoining
Donohue& & Henneberry's building, In do
ing so a pipe was broken and the gas es
capped into the basement
About this time small fire broke out
from some unknown cause, and when the
fremen answered the alarm they detected
the ordor Of gas in the basement, Nothing
daunted, however, the men. led by Chief
Sweeny, rushed in. At that instant the gas
was ignited and exploded with violence
sufficient to throw the firemen PROSTATE
In an instant, however, the least seriously
injured, with their clothing in flames,
seized those Of their companions unable to
aid themselves and dragged them from
the burning room Chief Sweeney, though
with hands blstercd and face scorched and
burned, was foremost in the work OF rescue
Caring for the Injured.
A squad of police arrived oppOrtunely
and assisted in taking the injured to an adj
joining drug store, where it was found
that with the exception of Gallagher and
Nolan there was little danger OF any fatal
termination. The fire was caused by an
explosion Of gas in the basement OF Dono-
hue & Henneberry's builiing When the
explosion occurred ten firemen We're in the
basement, and adj were more or less Sc
yerely burned.
The gas still continued to rush from the
broken pipe, and few minutes later an
other explosion occurred. Messengers were
dispatch to the directors of the gas
company for men to at once cut off the
supply, but 1t looked as though before this
could be done the building would be con~
pletely wrecked. Almost Immediately afte.
the second explosion another oc9alred, aud
then II third and fourth. After each ex-
plosion the fire broke out again in various
portions OF the building, but fortunately
IA four-eleVen alarm had called large
| number of engines to the scene, and the
force was ample to cope with the flames
| and prevent any serious spread. All eff
| forts, however, to shut off the gas were
| unavailng, and explosion followed explo-
| sion at intervals of buta few minutes until
! finally the valve controlling the gas was
| found and the supply was cut off. Not
| until then did the department dare to
| leave the scene.
List of the Injured.
| The COO employees in the building made
| their escape without injury, and although
| badly frightened made their exit in an
orderly manner. The loss to the building
| will he between $4,000 and $4,000, fully
covered by insurance. This was mostly
caused by the breaking of glass. All the
glass iii the first stories of the building
! was broken.
The ilremen injured were: Fire Marshal
| Dennis Swecny, forehead and cheeks
burned and beard and hair siuged; Will
lam Mclnery, head and face burned and
left foot bruised; Fire Marshal Patrick
| O'Malley, face badly blistered John Don
lin, face and hands burned and two teeth
| knocked out: James Russell, internal in
| jures, face burned and bruised, may die;
Captain Charles Syfertick, badly burned
about face and hands; Lieutenant j. q.
Lain, badly burned about head; Matthew
Koch, badly burned about head, body and
arms; William Padden, face burned; Lieu
tenant Lacey, hands and face blistered;
Michael Nolan, seriously burned about
| face and hands; Thomas Nevins, face and
hands burned: Thomas Gallagher, seriously
burned on face nnd hands and injured in.
ternaly Captain John Mcdonald, face
and hands cut and burned; Lieutenant
Patrick Murphy, face bruised and burned
j. f. Kelly face and hands burned; Nill,
lam Fleming face and hands bistercd
Captain Frederick j. kaeder crushed be
tween press and wall, not dangerous.
The following employees of Donahue &
Henhebefry were adj burned about the face
and hands; Edward Mullen, John Sheehy
August Gnatt. Clinton Cleveland, John
Farra4h, Henry Schroeder 4 Mullane An
employee of the Economic Gas company
name unknown, was also badly burned.