The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-11-07
OVER THIRTY KILLED
And a Score Injured by a Boiler
Explosion in Detroit.
a BIC BuILDINa pEMoLIsHEp.


fourteen Dead Bodies Already Recovered
and Twenty-sevsn Others Missing, Most
or All OF Whom are Doubtless Buried
Beneath the wreckage.
DETROIT, Nov, IA gaping rent nearly
forty feet wide from top to bottom Of q
i've story business block, dozen dead
bodies recovered, score Of persons In
1ured and more than that number missing,
with certainty that many more dead
bodies are beneath the ruins, 10 the result
, OF an explosion which startled the city yes
terday, and totally wrecked about third
OF the building at the corner of Larned
and Shelby streets, occupied by the De-
troit Evening Journal and several other
s tenants 4a
At 10 o'clock the whole neighborhood
! was terrified by fearful shock, caused by
the exploding of the boilers In the base
mcnt of The Journal building. Plate
glass windows across the street and some
OF them farther away were shattered
by the conclusion, and several persons
were cut by falling glass. At the same in
slant the five floors and roof Of that sec
tion Of the building collapsed and fell to
the basement, carrying with II atleast fifty
persons. The cloud Of dust was quickly
succeeded by smoke from the fires which
started in the ruins. The work Of rescue
was rushed to the utmost all day and last
night, but progress has necessarily been
very slow.
The dead thus far taken from the ruins
are; Lizzie Thpley, aged 20, employed by
Davis 81 Co.; Henry Walsh, employed by
Kohlbrand Engraving company; John j.
Reuter-, apprentice.in the employ Of Dun
lap % Co.; George H. Soule, engraver;
George Shaw, mailer, Detroit Journal;
Willie Halves, 10 years old, mailer, Detroit
journal; Henry Larivere, employed In
mailing room Of Journal; Carrie Bauer,
bookkeeper In Killers factory; Hattie
Miller and Minnie Liese, bindery employees;
k. l.. Riger, machinist; james Ross, Will
lam w. Dunlap and an unknown boy,
supposed to be John Bowman, employed
by Kohlbrand g. CO., the features being
unacceptable.
The wrecked portion of the building,
which is owned by the Newberry estate,
was separated from the rest of the struc-
ture by fire wall. The first floor Of that
section was occupied by the John Davis
company, dealers in druggists specialties,
and by Tho journal mailing department.
The second, third and fourth floors were
occupied by the Davis company, W. w.
Book bindery. The editorial rooms of The
Journal arc on the fourth floor, but stu
ated beyond the fire wall, and the staff
escaped injury. The journal stereotyping
room, on the fifth floor, was directly In the
path Of the explosion and went down in
the wreck. A few had miraculous escapes
and came staggering from the ruins after
the awful shock, scarcely knowing them
selves what had befallen them.
Arthur ID. Lynch, q Journal stereotyper,
who went down with the wreck from the
top floor, was pulled from the ruins en-
tirely conscious. He was preparing a
matrlx, and when he fell he was protected
by the great iron steam table.
M. Jacobs, q paper dealer, who had been
in Killers bindery, had Just left che
building when the crash came. He Thought
there must have been twenty girls and
four or five boys In the bindery, besides
George J. Hitler, the proprietor, of whom
nothing has been seen or heard since the
accident.
From the lists Of tenants and employees
secured 1t seems certain that fifty people
In all were In the collapsed section. There
are still twenty seven persons unhccounted
for, and 1t Is more than fair to presume that
most or all Of them are among the dead
At every hour reports are received Of others
who are missing, and relatives and friends
have been unable TO find any trace Of them.
Two of the large number Of injured who
are In the hospital will probably not re.
cover. OF those who are now in the ruins
1t Is impossible that any will be rescued
alive. Those who were not killed out.
right have undoubtedly persisted, either
from suffooation or exhaustion. The only
hope is that some OF those who are reported
Na,ta atVxrw h. II 81. mi
total death rate viii not be known before
tonight. 1t may be even longer before
tho workmen reach the basement floors of
the LII fated building and the total num-
Der of lives lost Is known to certainty.
Carelessness is undoubtedly the cause of
this disaster, but where the responsibility
rests Is as yet problematlcal. Thomas
Thompson, the engineer, was painfully
injured He said he could assign no
reason for tho explosion. City Boiler In
spector McGregot says he inspected the
boilers last August, and had found them
up to the requirements. Some of the
employees in the building assert that the
boilers were old and known to be unsafe.
Still Others have a theory that the ex-
plosion was caused by chemicals owned
by the Davis company, stored in the base
ment,
Ahotner circumstance Is also considered
significant, namely, that carpenters vera
engaged in snoring up the floor of the sec
ond story directly over the boilers, In order
to sustain the weight Of a heavy machine
which had been placed in Dunlap's ma
chine shop. The men who were at work
at this job were buried in the ruins.
The most shocking scene attending the
holocaust was struggle between Coroner
Butler and an undertaken In the employ
of Giles brothers against Undertaken Frank
Gibbs. The latter chung to the stretcher
while the body was being carried through
the crowd, and as the spectators were be-
coming excited over the ghoulish scene
the police, in the interest Of order rushed
Gibbs outside the fire lines and would not
permit him to return.
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