River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1895-11-14
i HARVEST OF DEATH.
Exploding Boilers Wreck the
journal" Building at Detroit.
The Dead Bodies of Thirty-Three Men
Exhumed frora the Ruins-Fire ,}rsak-
ing Out Adds to Its Horrors-A
Careless Engineer.

The Dead Bodies of Thirty-Threo Men 1
Exhumed frora the Ruins-Fire freak-
Ing Out Adds to Its Horrors-A
Careless Engineer.
Detroit, Mich, Nov. TAT three
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 10 persons, wounding 20 others
more or less seriously and causing q
money loss of 100000.
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 IL
came tumbling down. tearing them
selves away from the adjoining wall.
The fremen were there in 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
we're 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 muir
fed cries for help. Streams of water
turned on the blaze soon checked the
tire 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 will have been explored and
the last of the bodies recovered. Upto
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 moment of the explosion. Fifteen
corpses were taken out of the ruins be-
tween six o'clock a. m. and five o'clock
p. IN.
Following is a revised list of the
dead:
The Dead.
George c. Hitler John Francis Derby,
Joseph Bradley, Louis @. Riecher. Rosa
Bretz. Emma Lichtenberg, Anna Wied-
busch, Katie Leonard. NJ. Rosa Morgan,
John Breitenbecher, John Koerber, Ernest
I'arkin, Jennie Neubauer. Bertha Wied-
busch. James Ross. Henry LariVere. John
BONNER. Walter Z. Saxby, Lizzie Tapley,
Henry Clou Walsh, John ]. Reuter-, George
III 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
ler Lon Fritz. Lizzie Wiedbusch. Charles
Lind. Anna Ulick and John NJ. Thomas.
The cause of the fatality was devel-
oped Thursday, when piece of one of
the boilers was uncovered by the
wreckers. The portion found disclosed
TO the expert engineers who examined
il at once that the cause of the eXplo-
sion was low water.
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.
Detroit, Mich, Nov. 9.-The walls adj
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 employee
Of the bindery; Annie Uhlik, press
woman in Killers bindery.
Late in the evening the body of James
B. Thomas, machinist, was taken from
the ruins of the journal building. This
is the 37th body recovered, and, &C
cording to the list of missing, was the
last body left in the wreck.
Prosecuting Attorney Fraser ordered
the arrest of Engineer Thompson, of
the wrecked building.