The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-02-11
THE PITTSBURG FIRE.
rhirty-Nine Lives Have Probably
Been Sacrificed.
TWRLVE DEAD BODIES FOUND.

The Other Twenty-seven Are Doubt.
less Buried Meath the Ruins OF
Wrecked Buildings-Property Loss
WIN Reach Million and a HALF
Pittsburg, Feb. 11.-Twelve persons
dead, N missing and 19 injured. and a
property loss of 81 100000, with about
81 COO, 900 insurance is the record of the
big fire of Wednesday night. Follow
ing is a revised list of the known dead:
Police Lieutenant A. ]. Berry; William
Scott. eldest son Of the president of the
Chautauqua Ice company, and his
youngest brother, John William Nc
Gonisle. the company's assistant en- =
gineer; John McHanna, Tanley Stilz.
John Dwyer George Loveless, William
Smith, Albert A. Wolf, Thomas Claffey
and William L. Wallehabenstein.
The missing, all Of whom are prob
ably buried under the ruins, are:
George Newman, fire inspector of
Philadelphia Gas company; Professor
James Moxan. organist of the Evan
gelical Lutheran church. Brushton,
Pa. Samuel Mclaughlin, Jacob Booth,
Jack Farrell George Mcdonald and
four companions, who were in a saloon
on Penn avenue when the falling wall
crushed in the building; Mrs. May Nc
Fadden, with her family of eight chill
dren, who lived in a house on Null
berry alley, which was crushed; Will
lam Doran, William Finch, Edward
Donnelly, Chris Schriver, James P.
Morrison, D. B. Weckerly and George
Gerry.
When the explosions of whisky bar
rels took place those within the fire
lines were seen to fall in all directions.
Those outside the lines were not be-
yond reach of danger Those not pros
trated by the first blast were knocked
down by the reactonary waves of air,
as the falling walls created a vacuum
that seemed to draw everything.
company of firemen was throwing
stream into the great storage house
from the narrow courtyard in the rear
of Penn avenue, from which q much
narrower alley led to the street, when
the first explosion took place, and part
of the massive wall of the storage
house toppled over on the roofs of the
houses and into the courtyard. The
narrowest chance
1t was on the Mulberry alley side,
where the least danger was anticipated,
that the force of the explosion was the
most severe. and there the greatest
number of fatalities took place. Ex-
plosion followed explosion for about
half an hour. Walls kept topping
down. and firemen, policemen and spec
tators were rendered almost powerless
to act by the sense of awe and terror
which the scene inspired. The old brick
houses along Penn avenue from Thir-
teenth to Twelfth streets caught from
the rear and burned rapidly.
All day firemen police and other
city employees worked at the risk of
their lives, but little progress has been
made in clearing away the debris. The
work will be continued without cessa-
tion until it is known no bodies re-
main buried. Twenty streams are con-
stantly playing on the still burning
ruins. A heavy pail of smoke over
hangs the desolate scene, and the tired
policemen have hard work to keep the
thousands of curious onlookers from
getting within the rope Gordon. Many
of the people who fled panic stricken
from their homes on Wednesday night
are, plucking up courage enough to re-
turn to the houses not jeopardized by
the fire weakened walls.
Mayor Ford yesterday afternoon. re-
alizing that some of the worst features
Of the calamity are yet to come, SO
far as the dead and heads of families
are concerned, and that many will be |
in need of prompt aid. issued q public
letter suggesting subscriptions from
The citizens for distribution among the
neadY Victims |