The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-05

| debris. They talked to the imprisoned men
| and encouraged them, but there was sad
| lack of help and their work was fruitless
/ The flames kept creeping on, and in less
than half hour after the explosion the
| rescuers were forced to cease their opera
| tions and bid goodbye to those beneath the
ruins. The cries of the latter died away
as they succumbed to the heat of the fire.
| Perhaps an hour passed while the flames
consumed the grocery and adjoining build
| ings, but nothing could be done to extin-
| guish them The Broad Ripple fire appara-
tus is limited to one insignificant
hand machine on wheels and the Indian
apolis department did not send relief untii
the fire was out. The hand machine was
useless, there was no water close enough
for its limited inch-and-a-half hose, and,
besides, the thing would not work anyway.
There was nothing to be done but to await
the full work of the fire. which, unmolesteo,
wiped away the two two-story buildings
occupied by the drug and grocery stores,
a cottage occupied by Manford Lang, liv-
cry stable owned by Isaac White, a barn
belonging to Joseph Ferguson and some
minor property. A quarter of block was
swept clean, and nothing but a few old
cans and bricks, together with little heaps
OF ashes, remained to mark the scene.
RECOVERING THE DEAD.
AS soon as possible the work of recover
ing the incinerated bodies began. Only one
dead body escaped injury by fire. That was
Jacob Darlings. Darling was killed by the
falling of the front wall of the grocery and
was easily reached before the fire could get
to him. The remaining dead were burned
into unrecognizable shapes, their skulls,
legs and arms becoming detached from the
trunk. AS these various members were not
recovered at the time the trunks were taken
out, with possibly two exceptions, it is now
hard to tell to whom they belong. 1t is
almost impossible to identify with certain
ty at least one Of the dead. Between the
recovery of the body of Jacob Darling and
that of Pious Gresh about a half hour
elapsed. After Greshs body was obtained
the remaining corpses were dug out in rapid
succession, the last one taken out being at
lis p. m, which was about four hours after
the first explosion in the drug store.
The drug store in which the first expIo-
sion occurred was located on the corner of
North and Cherry streets and was two
story structure.
It was about $50 o'clock when Edgar E.
Watts, son of James Watts, druggist, went
into the dark room in the back OF the store
In company with Emsley Johnson, a young
man who had come from New Augusta to
visit him. Young Watts desired to show
his companion how to develop pictures. In
the store at the time were also Frank
Watts, another son of the druggist who
had in his arms two and half-year-old
boy of Edgars, and also Tyson Kitchener,
a man about seventy years of age. When
the two young men went into the dark
room they carried a little lamp. After
| Of
films that they were dipping in a vat con-
tanning phosphate of soda and Eastman's
development compound, the lamp went out.
THE DARK ROOM EXPLOSION.
Johnson handed Watts a match and says
he noticed the air was oppressive at the
time Watts struck the match and in an
instant the room seemed to turn green fol-
lowed by the terrific explosion. Both
young men were knocked to the floor and
dazed. Both, however, escaped, though
they scarcely know how. The dark room
was beneath a stairway and there was a
window looking out from the stairway into
the street. 1t was through this window that
johnson in some manner got out. He found
Watts on the outside running. Johnson
was only slightly burned in the hands and
face, but Watts is now resting under
opiates with severe injuries on the face and
| n6du he Is not ldletlly HuIl, HOWSNeI.
James Watts, at the time of the explo-
sion, was standing near the front part of
the store which faced North street. Along
the front of the building was porch and
Mr. Watts, with the little baby Of Ed
gar's in his arms, was looking out over
the porch. The explosion caused the whole
front Of the building to fall and Watts
seems to have been blown out to the porch,
part of which fell on him. He extricated
himself and then worked to rescue the baby,
which had been knocked out of his arms
and was pinioned in by some debris. Others
helped him and soon the baby was hauled
out with only bruise on its forehead as
the result of it's experience. Watts next
turned his attention to Tyson Kitchener,
the old man who was also in the store at
the time. Kitchener was found with his
leg fastened among the timbers and con-
sidering his age, was dangerously injured.
Thus every one in the drug store escaped,
but the building was thoroughly wrecked
and afterward burned.
The Watts family maintain that the fire
could not have resulted from combustibles
in the store. Still there were many cans Of
oil of various kinds and the location of the
dark room is now marked by over dozen
of these cans. Their presence explained, at
least, the great rapidity with which the
building burned While there was nat
ural gas connection in the building it was
only used for Illuminating purposes and no
one had detected the odor of escaping gas.
Up over the drug store was hall occu-
pied by the Christian Church and all the
church property was destroyed. The mem
bers of the church are lamenting the fact
that they recently sold their church and
moved into the hall One lady was strange
ly bewailing in the midst of the awful scene
that no services would be held to-day. v
One Was Killed and Joseph Wam-
baugh Terribly Hurt.