The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-05

CINCINNATI. May 4-This city and
vicinity has been greatly excited over
the explosion of a large tank of gaso- (,
line, which completely demolished the !,
five-story building at $50 and 1872 Wal /,
nut street at 8 o'clock tonight After |
the explosion the widest reports were
current as tC the loss of life. Before (,
midnight it was known that six were
killed and eighteen injured, but the
work of removing the debris had pro-
ceeded so slowly that the general esti-
mate of the killed and wounded greatly
exceeded this number
The building seemed to have col !
lapsed in such manner that the pile !,
of debris YVES covered by the tin roof.
and after working several hours it
was found that the only way to
RESCUE THE VICTIMS
was to remove the immense brick mass
of brick and timber. Accordingly men
were put at it. as many of them as
could work on it. The debris was be-
ing shoveled by one force out into the
street and into the rear alley. and all
available teams were secured for an
other force CT men to load it I'D and
get it out of the way. This is found
to be the only practical means of
reaching those who were on the lower
floors. All those who have been res
cued have been on the upper floors,
except some who were thrown out into
the street. While this work was going
on holes were cut through the founda-
tons of adjacent buildings and debris
was taken out. Three lives were saVed
by persons being rescued in that man
ner. 1t is thought that others will be
saved by these holes through the base /:
ment walls of the adjoining buildings. /.
The family of AdOlph Drachs suffered ;
most severely. Drachs and his wife
are numbered among the dead, his D.
year-old daughter is dead and his s. :.
year-old boy is believed to be dying. /.
KILLED. /,
holland A. Davft. !,
AdOlph Drachs. !
Mamie Kennedy.
INJURED.
Mrs Drachs, foot crushed.
Babe of Mrs. Drachs. limbs crushed.
Emil Drachs, right arm broken, cut
over eyes
bdIUdId f1QGLAtluldH, uOIuESllC IOI
Fey, hurt over the eyes.
j. B. Ward, Toledo, race horse man;
cut with glass.
Sidney w. Johnson, barkeeper for
Fey; cut on the back of head and over
the eye.
Willard Cock; right arm mashed, cut
over the eye.
Joseph Sprague, colored porter; face
and hands badly burned.
w. Z. Hunwick, shoulder dislocated.
c. s. Wells, clerk; badly crushed.
Peller Burns, horse dealer; confusion
right arm and leg, bad scalp wounds.
Charles Filley, teamster; confusion
head and arms.
John Mccarthy, clerk on Big Sandy
steamer; confusion leg and head, in
ternally injured; will die.
r. A. Fricke of Norwood.
William Lauth and William Lohelde
are known to be still in the ruins and
not likely ITO be recovered alive.
A MOST TOUCHING SCENE
occurred when Fireman John Mccarthy
found his brother pinioned under a heavy
beam and begging the men above to kill
him. Mccarthy said there were three
other men near MIN and they were alive.
The most heroic efforts to tberate these
sufferers were made up to midnight.
Herman NOlte, jr., was standing by a
barber shop pole in an adjoining build
ing when struck by some debris and suf-
fered a broken leg and other injuries.
There We're many that suffered slight
injuries who were taken to their homes
and whose names cannot be learned.
Some of those who were in the saloons
were blown out on the sidewalk and suf-
fered slight injuries. Among them Mr..
Healy, of the Aims hotel. He was in
Fey'S place and reports about eighteen
or twenty in that resort when the building
went down. Mr.. Drach being among the
victims, it is probable that it will never be
known how the explosion came about.
He had just been down in the basement
experimenting with the gasoline engine
and had poured barrel of gasoline into
the tank.
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 is all broken. The glass was broken
out of street cars that were passing at
the time, 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
and ran away, and there was not ~
intense excitement but the greatest con-
fusion. The explosion loon place ~
doors from the intersection of Fifth and
NdlHu StIetlS. IttS pOStOlllCC was lOCdlcNl
on one side and Fountain square on the
other.
No part of the city is crowded more at
that time of the evening, and there were
soon many thousands of people about
Fountain square, and the space aroun0
the government building, while Walnut
street was completely blockaded.
There were at first reports about fire.
works being stored in the building, and
also about dynamite and ammunition so
there were several stampedes in the I'M
rnense crowds on the reports about other
explosions being likely to follow. Sew
eral people were slightly hurt in these
stampedes
The ground floor Of 432 Walnut street
was occupied by Adolph c. Drach's, for
a saloon He owned that part of the
building and the other part was owned
by Mr.. Goldsmith, and the first floor OF
this building at 4S0 Walnut street was
also occupied by a saloon run by Louis
Fry The upper floors of the five story
building were occupied as flats 1t is not
known at 10 o'clock how many people
d.