The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-05-07
NOT ONE CAPED
FIVE-ST0RN BUILDING IN CINCIN-
MATT DESTROYED.
An An Explosion of Gasoline A1moss
H Completely Wrecks the Building,
and Of the Many People in the
Structure All Are Either killed
or Injured-It Is Not Known az
Yet How Many Lives Are Lost.

Cincinnati, May Cat 8 o'clock last
night the fve-story building, 43O and
4332 Walnut street, between Fourth and
Fifth streets, was blown to the ground
! by an explosion of gasoline. The
shock was so terrific that it was felt
all over the city, and not one brick
upon another is left in the front and
rear walls of the building, while the
adjacent buildings are badly damaged
and the glass in the windows in the
Gibson house and the large johnson
building, across the street, was all
broken. The glass was broken out of
street cars that were passing at the
tlme, and one of the cars was badly
wrecked, but none Of the passengers
were seriously hurt. All the horses
IN the immediate neighborhood broke
from their fastenings ard ran away.
and there was not only intense excite
ment. but, also, the greatest confusion.
several people were slightly hurt in
stampedes of crowds.
The ground floor of 1872 Walnut
street was occupied by Adolph G.
Drach as a saloon. He owned that
part Of the building, and the other part
was owned by NJ. Goldsmith, and the
flrst floor of this building, 43O Walnut
street, was also occupied by saloon
run by Louis Fey. The upper stories
Of the, five-story building were occu-
pied as flats. 1t is not known how
many people were in the fats, or how
many were in the saloons, but none
escaped, as the building
Immediately COLLAPSED.
There was no fire to consume debris
and make certain death Of all in the
building, but the dust and dirt con-
tinued flying for a long time so densely
that the work of rescuing the victims
proceeded with great difficulty. al
though the police and fire departments
rallied heroically to the work The sa-
looms we're said to be quite full Of
people. One of the barkeepers who
was not on duty at the time, escaped.
He lived in one of the upper flats, and
was wild with grief because he knew
that his wife and four children were
IN the ruins. One of his children was
recovered, dead, soon after the ex-
plosion. There are wild reports about
the extent of the loss of life. Six
bodies were recovered an hour and a
half after the explosion. One of the
children of Mr.. Drach was recovered
dead. The body of Mrs. Drach was
found soon after the explosion. but it
could not be extracated from the tim
ber. During the evening there was
much excitement among the guests in
the Gibson house and all places in
the vicinity Of Walnut street. The ex-
element was the most intense because
it could not be definitely learned that
the saloons had put in their owl, cleo
trio light plants and had Just secured
gasoline engine With which to run
the dynamos. The plant got out Of
fix and there was fasl, which COM
municated to the gasoline and caused
the explosion. The sudden collapse
Of the large building smothered every
thing in the cellar so that there was
no fire. The firemen were soon as
sisted by some expert engineers who
made openings through the basement
walls of adjacent buildings and were
recovering some of the victims in that
manned. The debris seemed to all
fall into one heap and not scatter
about the street so that there was the
greatest difficulty in recovering the
dead bodies and rescuing the injured.
Six bodies and eighteen injured nave
been removed from the debris, but
many others still remain under the
mass of wreckage. -.