The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-11-07
THE DETROIT HORROR.
= - -
the Number of Dead and Injured is In
creasing.

creasing.
DETROIT, Mich, Nov. IA gaping
rent nearly forty feet wide from top to
bottom of five story business block;
dozen dead bodies recovered; a score
of persons injured and more than that
number missing, with a certainty that
many more dead bodies are beneath
the ruins, such are the results of an
explosion which startled the city yes
terday and totally wrecked about a
third of the building at the corner of
Larned and Shelby streets occupied by
the Detroit Ev ening Journal and sew
eral other tenants.
At o'clock the whole neigh borhood
was terrified by fearful shock, caused
by the explosion of the boilers in the
basement of the Journal building.
Plate glass windows across the street
and some of those farther away were
shattered by the conclusion and sew
eral persons were cut by falling glass.
At the same instant the five floors and
roof of that section of the building
collapsed and fell to the basement,
carrying with it at least fifty persons,
who had not the slightest warning of
their danger. The cloud OF dust which
blinded the eyes of the amazed spec
tators of the horror was quickly sue
ceeded by smoke from the fires which
started in the ruins. The work of
! rescue was rushed to the utmost all
day and night, but progress has
necessarily been very slow.
The debris and brick are dumped
into an almost solid mass, upon which
quantities of water has been poured
and into which comparatively little
Roadway has been made. The dead
! fhJc far To Ian from bQ
Lizzie Tapley, aged 20, employed by
Davis & Co.
Henry Walsh, employed by Kohl
brand Engraving Company.
! John ]. Reuter-, apprentice in en-
| ploye of Dunlap & Co.
| George Fl. Soule, engraver.
George Shaw, mailer, Detroit Jour
nal
Willie Halves, i6 years old, mailer,
Detroit Journal.
James Ross.
William w. Dunlap.
Henry Larivere, employee mailing g
room, Journal.
Unknown boy; remains found in
ruins at Ais; features unrecognizab BILE;
supposed to be John Bowman, en-
ployed by Kohlbrand & Co.
Carrie Bauer, aged %. book-keeper
| in Killers bindery; body recovered at
IL p. m.
About twenty were injured, and
some of them will probably die.
Some thirty tenants and employees
in the building are still missing, and
there can be no doubt that most OF
of these are lying dead under the
debris.
The total death rate will not be
known before tonight. 1t may be
even longer before the workmen reach
the basement floors of the Inflated
building, and the total number of
lives lost is known to certainty.
Carelessness is undou btedly the
cause of the disaster, but where the
responsibility rests is as yet prob
1ematical Thomas Thomson, the
engineer, was painfully injured. He
said he conld assign no reason for the
explosion. City Boiler Inspector Me
Gregor says he inspected the boilers
last August and had found them up to
the requirements. Some of the en-
ployes in the building assert the
boilers were old and known to be
unsafe.
The most shocking scene attending
the holocaust was struggle between
the employ of Giest Bros. against I'm
dertaker Frank Gibbs. The latter
chung to the stretcher while body
was being carried out through thC
crowd, as the spectators were becom
ing excited over the ghoulish scene
The police in the interests of ordel
rushed Gibbs outside the fire lines an(
would not permit him to return.