The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-11-15
FORTY LIVES GO OUT
EXPLOSION OF BOILERS IN
DETROIT MICH.
The Journal Building Wrecked and Me-
chanics Hurled Beneath Tons of De-
bris-Dead Bodies Taken Out and Many
Missfng-The Details.

DETROIT, Mich, Nov. AT three
minutes to o'clock this morning the
battery of boilers in the building of the
Evening Journal exploded, wrecking the
buildings Nos as and AZ West Larned
street, killing at least forty persons,
wounding twenty others more or less
100000.
The Detroit Journal office was To-
Gated at Shelby and Larned streets, oc-
cupying for its main offices a seventy
foot front on Larned street Next east
OF its building and part of the same
block were two twenty foot fronts
which constituted the scene of the dis
aster. One of these, No. As, was wholly
occupied by John Davis & Co., saleratus
manufacturers and dealers in grocers'
supplies, while in the basement of the
other were the two boilers which ex-
ploded. Just above the boiler room on
the first floor was the Journals mailing
ROOM The second floor was occupied
by the KohTbrand Engraving company
and w. w. Dunlap's agency for Rogers
typograph supplies. The third and
fourth floors were George Killers book
bindery and the top floor was the Jour-
mails stereotyping room.
There were three stereotypers at work
on the Journals floor, about thirty
girls in the book bindery, besides the
proprietor, a machinist and several 9TH
ers IN the typograph supply shop, sew
eral engr1vers and assistants in the
kohlbrand company's rooms and force
OF clerks in the ground floor mailing
room There We're six persons in the
Davis building. In the basement were
: the engineer, fireman and several press
men The first intimation the neigh
borhood got of the disaster was from
the tremendous report, followed by a
Winding cloud of debris, smoke and
steam, and before this had cleared away
the whole five floors and the people
working upon them were in one mex
trica.ble wreck
The force Of the explosion had thrown
down the wall between 45 and AZ Larned
street and the joists which rested upon
1t came tumbl1ng down, tearing them
selves from the adjoining wall A heavy
fire wall separated this building from
the main building Of the Journal COM
pany. The weight of this was sufficient
to Withstand the shock of the explosion,
and although several holes were blown
through it the walls remained standing.
The Niremen were there in a minute
from the next corner.
Thousands Of people gathered and the
police wsre on hand in large numbers
Near the cop of the ruins, one arm and
the leg OF man protruded. The re-
mainder o. "a bol%xwas buried beneath
the rubbisi walls the arm was
fee'bly way Erescuers centered
their efforts \ point and worked
like heroes to ..release as quickly
1, as possible. Als, moments elapsed be-
! fore he VIZ nto the ambulance
At that$ Tae :; not determined
whethes j. ltinct.
Thelfe, tr..~ 'nf the calam-
itys s<s4sss Irs-... INTO the de-
bris and -, into ;. h.he furnace
fires set Il. fro' bindery
ablaze. ami ii - weIS driven
back by srnok -. ,ough which, from
time to time cries for help. The
-firemen wo, IN heroically and a
stream turned on soon checked the
blaze, so that a gang of 300 laborers
who had been collected could get into
the debris and pull it into the street.
At 9:45 Charles Packet was found on
the third story of the ruins in the rear
to which approach was had through the
alley. He reported that there had been
four or five girls on the floor with him
He did not seem to be seriously in
jured.
Up to 5 o'clock twelve bodies had
been recovered, eleven of which were
identified. They We're carried to a.
vacant storeroom of Mayor Pingree's
on Jefferson avenue. In the afternoon
the city authorities had electric lights
strung about the place, so that work
might go on tonight. Hope Of finding
anyone alive was abandoned and threat
ening walls were pulled down.
At z o'clock new gang of workmen
renewed the work, but up to $50 this
evening no more bodies had been re,
covered. BY tomorrow noon the whole
mass of ruins will be explored and this
twenty-seven or twenty-eight bodies
which still remain In them recovered
The cause of the explosion is a mys-
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