The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-11-01

PITTSBURG, Oct. 27.-The explosion
of a barrel of whisky in the big ware
house of the Chautauqua lake ice COM
pany this afternoon caused the destruc-
ton of over 100000 worth of property
and serious injury to eight persons. Sew
eral of the injured il Is feared will die.
A score or more of others sustained
slight cuts and bruises or were trampled
on by the mob surrounding the burning
buildings. Those seriously hurt were:
T. j. Holman, married, dropped from
the third floor to the ground, hands and
face terribly burned. His injuries are
considered fatal
Martin Griffith. married. dangerously
burned.
Edward Specs, body and head badly
burned, may not recover.
William Cox, single, dangerously burn
ed about face and body.
William Smith. painfully burned, will
recover.
These men were all rescued from the
burning building by the firemen.
Lieut.. Frank Mccain of engine COM
pany No. Z, struck by falling bricks and
left leg fractured.
William Wiseman, struck by falling
timbers and skull fractured dangerously.
John Reiseche, boy, badly hurt by fall
ing timbers.
The Alarm.
1t was just 1:20 o'clock when a number
of the employees on the third floor of the
Chautauqua ice company's buildings
were startled by a loud report and al
most i'm an instant the large room was
ablaze. The men quickly gave the alarm
and then started for the stairs, but the
flames had already cut off their escape
and the only means of exit left them
were the windows fifty feet from the
ground. BY this time the heat was so
intense that they were forced to creep
out on the window stills and hang by
their hands until the fire department ar
rived. The flames bursting from the
windows burned their hands and faces,
but they hung there until the men of
truck r got ladders and brought them
down. When the fire was discovered an
alarm was sent inRnd when the first
district reached the scene the flames
were rapidly eating their way through
the great seven story building of the
Chautauqua company. A second alarm
brought out two more districts. but the
fire by this time had spread to the seven
story building of the Pittsburg storage
company adjoining, and both structures,
200 feet long and 100 feet deep were burn
ing fercely.
Two more districts were then sum-
moned and in twenty minutes water was
pouring on the flames from nearly a
score OF engines. At 2 o'clock it looked
as though the whole block from Twelfth
ST. to Thirteenth-st and from Pike to
Penn-ave. was doomed and the residents
were notified to move out. To add TO
the excitement it was discovered that a
large tank of ammonia was located in
the cellar OF the ice company's building,
and the police. fearing an explosion,
quickly ordered the occupants of the
houses on Twelfth-st. To also vacate.
4 Panic Results.
All the houses in the neighborhood are
CHEAP tenements and are crowded nearly
TO suffocation with Polish Jews and
slavs. When they were told to move
out a panic indescribable started among
them Household goods store goods.
children and everything that could be
carried away was rushed to a place Of
safety. At 2:30 the walls on the Null
berry alley side fell in with a crash and
a few minutes later the eastern wall
came down. The debris buried a long
row Of tenements I'm the alley and a
three-story brick dwelling on Thirteenth
st. The tenements were occupied by
twenty families, but fortunately they
had been deserted some time before the
walls fell in. Not one of the families
had chance TO save any Of their goods
and all their furniture was destroyed.
The ruins took fire Immediately and for
awhile the entire tenement district Of
Penn-ave. was threatened with destruc-
ton. BY hard work the firemen sue
ceeded in drowning out these flames, and
the fire was confined to the buildings Of
the storage and ice companies. 1t was
dark, however. before the Gre was COM
pletely under control and all danger over.
Among the business men who had
goods stored in the buildings were p.