The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-12-24

tory, and L. Foller, who lived in the
same house. When the explosion oc-
Cured Hopper was in the street attending
to some outside business. Grimm ana
the engineer were working in the rear.
The other men were working in the front
OF the building. A trolley car was pass
ing the door, HOPPER explained the ex-
plosion as it appeared to him, as fol-
lows:-
sT was standing in the street, talking
to man when suddenly heard terrible
explosion and saw the roof of the building
fly Off Bits of iron went hurting through
the air. One piece about three feet long
flew over my head and went crashlng
through the, roof of the trolley car which
was passing. The passengers were ter
ror stricken. The iron took the roof on
Iron and wood were flying everywhere.
The motorman recovered from the nrst
/ shock and hastened his car to place OF
safety 1 thought of the other tanks and
FASTENED to get out of the way. After 1t
was over 1 saw Burr and White, but the
others l did not see.
The first explosion was followed by
others as tank after tank exploded. The
man who was blown out of the rear OF the
building was probably Grimm, as he was
working in the rear when the explosion
occurred. l did not know who the mem
bers of the firm are. There were only
five men in the building at the time the
explosion occurred. The firemen should
not put water on the flames as 1t only
makes them worse
Hopper was not hurt, but he was as
pale as a sheet and showed what a shock
he had received. The building of the
chemical company was a ruin, with only
the foundations remaining in less than
half an hour after the first explosion.
The buildings in the vicinity suffered
greatly. Not a pane of glass within five
blocks of the explosion remained un-
broken The big tenements next to the
building were shaken to their foundations
and furniture was wrecked. Women
tainted and men lost their heads COM
pletely.
The greatest damage done after the
wrecking of the building was the tenn
porary wrecking of the Jersey City Elec-
trc Light and Power Companys plant.
Wires were broken all about the wrecked
factory. Live wires were dangling from
half hundred poles and police and volun-
teers stood at hand to warn people against
wires on Montgomery street were also
damaged. All telephone and telegraph
communication between the dill and Jer-
sey City and New York was cut off. The
Electric Light Company sent gang of
men at once to repair the damage and
they had the wires repaired in an hour.
The telephone and telegraph wires We're
not as quickly mended
Many Of the scenes around the wrecked
building were pathetic. 1t was rumored
that many persons had been killed and
injured and women went rushing around
wringing their hands frantically, looking
for loved ones. Children were crying
from terror. In the tenements in Fremont
street, less than block from the fac
tory, the greatest CONSERVATION reigned.
The flying bits of boiler broke the win
dows and broke the frames. In one of.
the tenements was lying Adolph Hippo,
who has been bedridden for four years.
When the explosion occurred a piece of
iron came hurting through the kitchen
window and frightened Mrs. Hippo, who
thought the building was going to pieces.
She went to the front window and yelled
for help. J. M. Orange, who was passing,
heard her cry that her "man'' was being
killed and rushing in picked Hippo up in
his arms and carried him to the building
occupied by the Manhattan Steam Laun-
dry, block away. There the sick man
was laid on pile of newly washed and
dried shirts Dan Rountree, an imbecile
who lived in one of the tenements, was
also carried there and laid on a pile of
laundry. One of the women in the laun-
n fain od ba r,1o fod fbo
pearance of an emergency hospital. Hip
pc and Rountree were removed to the
City Hospital. The woman was cared for
by her COMPANIONS and soon recovered
Luckily there was no building directly
adjacent to the factory. The fire burnt
itself out. The f1remen confined their eff
forts to saving the property of the juno
ton Railroad Company. The trestle of
that road adjoins the property on which
the factory stood. Pieces of the hot iron
flew two blocks off and across Montgom-
cry street and set fire to the meadow
grass. The explosions shook the City
Hospital buildings and alarmed the pa
tients, many of whom Will probably suf-
fer severe consequences because of the
shock.
A piece of the iron was thrown nearly
a quarter of a mile and crashed through
the roof of ST. Johns Episcopal Church
on Summit avenue.
Not only was damage done in the i'm
mediate vicinity of the explosion, but
rumors came from almost every section
of broken windows occasioned by the
terrific jar and of heavy pieces of iron
that fell through roofs of buildings a
mile away. Buildings were Jared on the
Hill and some of the windows of buildings
of that section suffered. 1t was the tene-
ment buildings Immediately adjacent and
along Mercer, Wayne and Montgomery
street that suffered the most
AS far east as school No. 9, at Bruns-
wick and Mercer streets, nearly a thou
sand yards distant were visible evil
dences of the explosion. The rear of the
big building is unprotected The lots in
the rear are vacant.
Neary score of windows and transoms
in the school were smashed. Over thou
sand children were going through their
Christmas exercises when the shock was
felt The exercises were held in the aud
itorium on the top floor. Many of the
parents of the children were present, and
Police Commissioners Abernethy and
Westmere were on the platform. Fortu-
nately, no windows of the big room were
smashed otherwise the children would
have been greatly alarmed. They simply