The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1895-11-13
A HARVEST OF DEATH.
Exploding Boilers Wreck the
"JournaT Building at De troit.
The Dead Bodies of Thirty-Three Men
Exhumed from the Ruins-Fire Break
ing Out Adds to Its Horrors-A
Careless Engineer.


minutes to nine o'clock Wednesday
morning the battery of boilers in the
building of the Evening Journal ex-
ploded, wrecking the buildings Nos. As
and ~ West Larned street, killing at
least 40 persons, wounding 20 others
more or less seriously and causing q
money loss of $4,000.
The first intimation the neighborhood
got of the disaster was from the ire
mendous report followed by binding
cloud of debris, smoke and steam and
before this had cleared away the whole
five floors and the people working up
on them were in one inextricable wreck.
The force of the explosion had
thrown down the wall between
Nos. As and AZ Larned street
and the joists which rested on it
came tumbling down. tearing them
selves away from the adjoining wall.
The iremen were there in a minute
from the next corner. The whole
downtown division of the department
followed, and willing volunteers from
the crowd that collected pitched in to
help dig into the ruins. Several bodies
were thus rescued within very short
period of time. Then came the hor-
rors of the calamity. As the workers
dug into the debris and the air got into
it the furnace fires set the mass ablaze,
and the rescuers were driven back by
the smoke, through which came muf-
fed cries for help. Streams of water
turned on the blaze soon checked the
fire so that the work of rescue might go
on, but not until at least three persons
had fallen victims to the flames.
Detroit, Mich, Nov. s.-The work of
recovering the bodies of the victims OF
the Journal boiler explosion continued
all day Thursday. By Friday noon all
the debris viii have been explored and
the last of the bodies recovered. Up TO
six O'Clock Thursday morning Is bodies
had been taken out of the ruins, nearly
all OF them frightfully burned. As the
workers got into that portion of the
debris into which fire had not crept the
condition of the corpses recovered was
found to be better. Death had come to
the victims of the disaster so suddenly
that many of them were found in the
very attitudes IN which they were az
the molaent of the explosion. Fifteen
corpses were taken out of the ruins be-
tween six o'clock g. ID, and five O'Clock
P. N.
Following is a revised list of the
dead:
George G. Hitler, John Francis Derby,
Joseph Bradley. Louis G. Riecher. Rosa
Bretz. Emma Liehtenberg. Anna WED
busch, Katie Leonard, NJ. Rosa Morgan,
John Breitenbecher, John Koerber, Ernest
Parkin, Jennie Neubauer. Bertha WED
busch, James Ross, Henry Larivere, John
BONNER, Walter P. Saxby, Lizzie Tapley,
Henry Clou Walsh, John J. Reuter-. George
H Soule, George Shaw, Willie Halves, Car
RE NJ Bower, Hattie Hitler, Michael Ward.
Minnie Liese, William w. Dunlap, Adolph
Schneider, Jr., John Gordon, Catherine Hill
Ter, Lon Fritz, Lizzie Wiedbusch, Charles
Lind
The cause of the fatality was devel-
oped Thursday, when piece of one of
the boilers was uncovered by the
wreckers. The boiler had been torn in
two in the middle tubes, risets and
plates parting as Clearly as if they were
cut by a cold chisel. A piece of this
boiler had evidently been driven in each
direction by the force of the explosion.
The portion found disclosed to the ex-
pert engineers who examined it at once
that the cause of the explosion was low
water. The iron showed that it had
been superheated and the absence of
scale confirm the opinion.
The city boiler inspector conceded
with this view after his examination
This throws the responsibility upon
the engineer and the owners of the
building, the former of HON had been
repeatedly warned that he was too care
less by neighboring engineers, while the
owners of the property had been given
at least one formal notice that he was
negligent. The owners of the property
are the heirs of the late Congressman
Newberry, who was in his lifetime the
business partner of Senator Mcmillan
After the coroner's inquest the mat
ter of responsibility viii probably be
taken up by the grand jury now in ses-
sion. AS all the families of the victims
are in humble circumstances, Gen. T.
A. Alger has headed q movement to
raise a fund for their relief, some of
the victims being the sole support of
aged parents. The fund promises to be
large one. Three of the persons in
iured are in a dangerous condition.
Detroit, Mich. Nov. 9.-The walls ad-
joining the wrecked portion of the Jour
nal building have been braced ard the
work of digging in the ruins progresses
rapidly and with greater degree of
safety. Three more bodies were taken
out. They were those of Lizzie Weld
busch, employed in Killers bindery: |
Charles Lind, aged 20, also an employe !
of the bindery; Annie Uhlik, press |
xx-op,an in Hi1larss hipdorr