The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-07
TWO SCORE VICTIMS OF AN EXPLOSION,

machinist, and several others in the typo
graph supply shop. several engravers and
assistants in the Kohlbrand Company's
-, rooms, and force of clerks in the ground
| floor mailing-room. There were six per-
! sons in the Davis building. In the base
| ment were the engineer, fireman and sew
[ eral pressmen
| The first intimation the neighborhood
got of the disaster was the tremendous re-
| port, followed by binding cloud of debris,
smoke and steam, and before this bad
cleared away the whole five floors and the
people working upon them were in one
1nextricable wreck. The force of the ex-
plosion had thrown down the wall between
40 and AZ Larned street, and the joists
which rested on it came tumbling down,
tearing themselves away from the adjoin-
ing wall. A heavy firewall separated this
building from the main building of the
RJournal Company. The weight of this was
sufficient to withstand the shock of the
explosion, and although several holes were
blown through it, the wall remained
| strong.
The firemen were there in a minute from
the next corner. Near the top. Annie
| O'Donough was found, her body a mass of
bloody flesh. She was carried to the hos
pital.
Then began the narrowing details of the
awful calamity
One poor fellow, stunned and helpless,
lay just upon the edge of the pile. He
was taken out and passed to volunteer
helpers. Then another, whose feet were
pinioned, was reached, but it was found
that he could not be released. Constant
digging finally effected his release and he
was dragged out and placed in one of the
ambulances.
Thousands of people gathered, and the
police were on hand in large numbers
Near the top of the ruins, one arm
! and the leg of a man protruded. The re-
lnainder of the body was buried beneath
the rubbish. AT intervals the arm was
feebly waved.
The rescuers centered their efforts upon
this point and worked like heroes to effect
a release as quickly as possible. Many mo-
ments elapsed before he was lifted into an
ambulance. At that time it was not de-
termined whether life was extinct, but he
/ was unconscious.
Then came the horrors of the calamity.
AS the workers dug into the debris and
the air got into it, the furnace fires set the
debris from the bindery ablaze, and the
workers were driven back by smoke,
through which, from time to time, came
muffled cries for help. The firemen worked
on heroically, and streams turned on the
| blaze soon checked the fire so that q gang
of 200 laborers who had been collected
could get into the debris and pull it into
| the street.
At GAS Charles Hackett was found in
the third story of the ruins in the rear, to
which approach was had through the
| alley. He reported there had been four or
/ five girls on the floor with him. He did
l not seem to be seriously injured.
AS the dlggers continued their work in
| front OF the wrecked building the appraised
arm OF man was uncovered on the side
walk, not far from where four other bodies
| were taken out. 1t was necessary to move
| huge pieces of stone windowsill and frag-
ments of machinery before the body could
| be released. The victim had escaped the
steam and smoke, but his head was
crushed into shapeless mass. He was
identified as Henry Lariviere, Journal
mailing clerk.
Two more bodies were found at the
| northwest corner of the building at II
O'Clock, making four taken from that spot
They presented an awful sight as the hot
bricks and smoking timbers were pulled
away. One was sitting bolt upright, with
his back to the street; the other was Just
below him and had been caught as he
plunged downward headlong. This was
Dunlap, the typograph supply dealer The
other was George Shaw, Journal clerk.
Another body was found at 1890. It
was that of a young man in blouse and
overalls, and it lay under all the debris on
the sidewalk, the head toward the build
ing and the feet near the curbstone. A
great block of stone had fallen upon his
head, crushing it fiat.
The seventh body, apparently that of a
machinist, was taken from the sidewalk in
front of the building soon after 1 o'clock
and then the workmen were driven back
while rope was thrown over an over
| hanging wall and it was pulled down by a
gang of men stationed on a building across
the street.
Up to o'clock twelve bodies had been
! recovered, eleven of which have been
identified. They were carried to a vacant
storeroom of Mayor Pingree's on Jefferson
avenue.
In che afternoon the city officers had
electric lights strung about the place so
that work might go on tonight. The hope
of finding any one alive was abandoned
and threatening walls were pulled down.
AT o'clock new gang of workmen
renewed the work. but up to $3.50 o'clock
this evening no more bodies had been
recovered. By tomorrow noon the whole
mass of ruins will have been explored and
the twenty-seven or twenty-eight bodies
which still remain in them recovered
While the work of recovery was at it's
height two rival undertakers had a quar-
rel over the possession of a body. While
the two undertakes were pulling at the
body the police, whose attention was at
tracted to the inhuman spectacle, rushed UP
and separated the men. Another assistant
came up with a cotfin and he put the body
in the box and commenced screwing down
the lid. Fireman Sullivan interfered. He
had assisted in dragging the body from
the ruins and said the man, alth ough
burned so as TO be almost unrecognizable,