The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-05
IS MOST FATAL CALAMITY
MANY LIVES LOST IN COLLAPSE OF
 4 CINCINN1TI BUILDING.

lggPeople for Several Blocks Around Were
 startled-A Fire Alarm Was at Once {, Sent in and the Work of Rescue Begun V A Newport Car Was Stopped by the
 Shock.
 E Cincinnati, May 4.-What may prove tine most disastrous calamity of the GSear occurred tonight when i've 'story brick structure filled with peo- stple collapsed and fell, a mass of brick A'and shattered timbers, burying the in 3anates beneath it's ruins. It is impossi- X ble to say how many persons have gbeen killed, some placing the number Mas high as forty, others as low as if Nteen.
 No accurate statement can be given Mon this point until the debris shall have |been cleared away, which will certainly Etake all night.
 w The building was on Walnut street, 6east of Fifth. The lower floor was oc- Ecupied by Drach's saloon The upper were rented to lodgers. No Zone knows what caused the collapse. fiPeople for several blocks around were fstartled by a terrific explosion at about |3 :45 o'clock. A fire alarm was instant Nv turned in and in few moments half |the fire department reached the scene Hand found the building a wreck. The |Mork of rescue was instantly begun, a l |force of men taking the front while a Esecond corps went to the rear of the Collapsed building. The first persons |Nwho appeared upon the scene entered Ethe alley and came up to the rear of Nh building where the cries and moans 4bf female were the only evidence of s5ife benath tn wrck. Thse cries came #from the cellar. It is impossible that Ehny persons on the other floors could Ehave escaped death. In addition to the [Eictims buried beneath the building it Ets estimated that fully one hundred Fpeople were more or less injured by the Eeonfusion, falling wires and fragments Ebf shattered glass, stone and timbers. Twenty of these injured on the streets t2were taken to the houses near by and Ethe wounds were dressed. Among those EWere Chief of Police Joseph Pugh of ECovington, Ky, who reports a most Emiraculous escape. He was just in the {Act of entering the saloon when he was .sBtartled by the flash of a burning elec- aEric wire overhead. He sprang back .lwards when almost simultaneously the 5explsion occurred and he was blown almost into the middle of the street. Fhree persons were injured slightly in A passing street car, and several ladies EDn another car were prostrated from the &sfock
 # A Newport, Ky, car, which was near
 he place was suddenly brought to a {$tandstill by a fearful shock and an im- kanense mass came crashing through the foof This proved to be an iron door From the cellar of the buildnig. It had been blown into the air. No one in the Ear was hurt. A Brown street car was smashed almost into fragments There IAvere no passengers aboard and the conductor and motorman escaped with Slight injuries.
 The explosion was caused by the ig- hilton of a gasoline tank. Adolph IDrach, proprietor of a saloon on the
 lower floor, had recently placed gas |bline engine in his cellar for the pur- bose of generating his own gasoline suel
 The best authorities agree that the |eommutator of the engine had burned |Dut, setting fire to the gasoline. The Building was seen to shake for an in- Istant and then cave in. The walls of the buildings adjoining remained in- Eact. The streets all around the block are literally covered with pieces of glass. It is almost impossible to push bne's way through the excited crowd Eathered about the place as late as
 midnight. Hundreds of anxious inquir-
 ITS keep the telephones in the vicinity busy and the hospitals and morgue are
 besieged with callers eager to ascer-
 ain the identity of the dead and dy-
 ng.
 Of the injured it is believed many |vill die.
 Several more victims are yet beneath
 he ruins and everything is being done
 10 secure the bodies.
 R. A. Prick of Norwood was to have
 eft for Philadelphia tonight. He is
 known to. have left his valise in Drach's
 aloon early this morning. As he has
 lot been seen since the explosion his
 friends fear his body is buried beneath
 he ruins.
 By digging through an adjoining wall
 he firemen came upon John Mccarthy,
 vho was lying upon his back helplessly
 inioned MT. Mccarthy was released liter the hardest labor.
 Near where Mccarthy was found was |hree other victims, among them a wo-
 han and child, who have not yet been
 aken from the ruins.
 The moans of the woman and the little one begging the mother to come to
 Ter stimulated the brave fellows who Ire working with might and main to
 lave them.
 Two priests, Fathers Tfernan and kelley, were conspicuous for their eff
 prts at consoling those beneath the
 uins. When leaning forward to ad-
 minister consolation to an unfortunate
 Tho was crying for aid Father Herman
 ras struck by falling tile and badly
 urt.
 OFF FOR NEW LONDON.