St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-02-22
A SINGULAR EXPLOSION,
Which Burned Out Most of Nc
Carthy & Donnelly's
Store.
No One Has a Theory at Hand
to Explain the Mys-
terry.

An explosion, followed by wave of
fame which burned everything 1t
touched, created much excitement aud
damaged $1,000 worth of stock at Nc
earthly & Donnelly's store yesterday
morning.
The firm occupies the basement and
first floor of the building, on Wabasha,
near Fifth street. The basement where
the explosion occurred and to which the
fire which followed was confined is used
as store room. Collins and Baskets of
all sizes and descriptions, together
with decorations for church affairs occu-
pied the greater part of the space in the
basement, and every precaution is taken
against fire by the firm and its EN-
ployes. About 1880 yesterday morning
the members of the firm were engaged
in the store When suddenly Il gust OF
wind something like cyclone
swept through the store accompanied
by volumes OF smoke. The force OF the
air from the explosion came up a stair
way in the rear, and was SO great that it
tore from its hinges door between the
store and a rear room and Wrenched one
of the huge doors to the safe from its
hinges. The front show window was
also broken out anu the smaller portion
OF the stock in the store tossed about
An alarm OF nre was turned III. and the
ilre department had the blaze eXtlll-
guIShed in fifteen minutes from The
time the alarm was sounded. VISITORS
10 the basement after the fire was out
were nonDu5ed at the sight. While
nothing was entirely burned, every
thing in the front part OF the big room
was scorched and cnarrtd as if wave
of fire had passed through it. Hundreds
OF cot1iuS anu caSketS stored Ill racks
Oh either slide were backened and
burned OH the outside, and the walls
and ceiling were treated the same way.
Very fortunate for the 1riiE anu also
for other occupants i'll the block, the de-
partinent eXtlnguished the flames
before they reached the rear OF
the basement. LII that portion
quantity OF oils and candles used III
churches were stored, and II the tlre
had reached there, the chances are the
buiIdipg and block would have been
doomed. As to the cause OF the eX-
plosion no Que seems 10 be able to solve
the mystery.
The first ole to notice anything
wrong was an emplOye OF the firm VINO
was engaged in trimming caSket i'll
the back room on the first floor. lie
heard il sound which at first he Supposed
to be from the boiler of an engine. Look
ing up he saw a volume or smoke
coming up the stairway leading from
the cellar. He started to run to the
front or store proper. and nearly
dropped from fright as the coffin he had
been trimming passed him on the way
TO the door. The theory advanced by
MIR. Mccarthy is that an employe who
visited the basement about all hour be-
fore, through carelessneSS, started the
fire in some way. The fire smouldered
until it had gained some Roadway and
then caught from one coffin to another,
the varnish OH the funeral boxes being
seasily ignited. Another theory is that
the cellar became filled IN some way
with gas, which was ignited and caused
the explosion.
The loss to the stock Is estimated at
$1,000, which Is covered by $4,000 H.
surance held by companies represented
by Rogers Bros, }. +. Gehan, L.. j. Cas-
serIy and A. n. Nelson.