The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-12
DISASTER IN PHILADELPHIA
FOUR coRPsEs FOUND IN THE
DEb-.IS.
Forty Tons Of Gasoline in the Cellar
Of Grocery Store Blows Up,
Wrscking the Building
and Two Others.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

TIlILADELPHlA, Sept. 11.-By the
explosion Of forty gallons Of gasoline
In the cellar Of a grocery store at 1444
South street tonight, four, and pos
sibly dozen lives were lost AS an
immediate consequence of the explo-
sion, the building wherein it occurred
and those adjoining it on either side
collapsed, and up to 10 o'clock, four
hours after the occurrence, four bodies
have been recovered from the ruins.
Three of these identified are as fol-
lows:
Samuel Schattenstein, keeper Of the
grocery store.
His ten-year-old son Abraham.
A ten-months-old child named Gold
berg.
The fourth body was that Of girl
about ten years old.
How the explosion occurred Is yet I'M
known. The front Of No. 1444 was
blown out, and this was followed by
the collapse of that structure and No.
1442. occupied by Morris Goldberg s
furniture store, and No. 1446, Louis
Sallinose's shoe store. The west wall
Of 1440, occupied by L. Wagner's cloth
ing store, was blown out. Because Of
confusion and excitement following the
disaster, it is as yet impossible to Sc
cure anything ILL., an accurate census
of the occupants, but it is generally
stated that the upper stories were
crowded with families, huddled to-
gether in tenement fashion. Coming
as 1t did at the supper hour it Is feared
that the loss of life was heavy. The
list of injured will be long. They were
taken to all the hospitals within a
radius of a mile.
After the recovery of the four bodies,
the authorities decided to postpone the
search for additional victims untll To-
morrow morning, thus obviating the
dangers and delays Of working upon
the mass Of debris and wreckage in the
darkness.
The corpses Of Shattenstein and his
son were picked up on the steps of No.
1444. The unidentified ten-year-old girl
was found pinioned by mass Of tim
bers in the rear of the same building,
and the Goldberg child died while being
taken to the hospital
The injured at the Howard Hospital
are: L. Shattenstein, aged II, broken
nose and laceration of scalp; Alexan-
der Shattenstein, aged 6, lacerated
scalp, condition serious; Mary Healy,
age IS, fractured leg; Annie McPhil-
omy, aged 40, confusion of ankle:
Harry Rothmel, IL years, lacerated
scalp; Maggie Goldberg. IL years, lac
Grated scalp; Sarah Goldberg, IA years,
lacerated scalp and confusion of ankle.
At the Jefferson Hospital are A. f.
Fish, 80 years, foreman of Truck Com
pany D, lacerated wound of scalp, and
Yetta Goldberg, years, confusion of
leg and back, and lacerated wound Of
scalp.
At the Polytechnic is Rose Schatten-
stein, years, lacerated finger.
The ten-months' child was Max
Goldberg, son of the furniture e
keeper. Estimates of the number Of
missing vary from eighteen to six.
The accepted theory of the accident
is that Shattenstein went into the cell
lar with a lighted lamp. which ignited
the fumes of the gasoline. From the
position of his body and that Of his son
on the front steps 1t is thought they
were emerging from the house when
caught by falling walls. The collapse
of the buildings occurred within two
minutes Of the explosion, and the oo-
cupants had little time or chance to
escape Mrs. Goldberg snatched up her
months -old child in her arms and
rushed for an exit, but the child was
so badly injured that it died while being
borne to a hospital. Strangel-- enough
the mother escaped with only trifiing
injuries.
At 6:45 o'clock tonight a sergeant
Of police was talking with one Of his
men on the opposite side of the street
when, without moments warning,
there was a terrific explosion, which,
almost before they could turn their
heads, was followed by a thunderous
crash. Mingled with this was the cries
of human beings. Without loss of time
one of the policemen struck the fire
alarm at a box near by, while the
other rang for ambulances.
The engines and six of the hospital
wagons were there within twenty min
utes and a large force Of policemen,
also summoned to the scene, had the
streets roped off from corner to corner.
The work of rescue was begun forth
with, but was temporarily abandoned
later when the twilight had deepened
into night. All the dead and injured
were in buildings at the time of the
disaster, and as the walls collapsed al
most in perpendicular direction, no
passers-by were injured by flying de-
bris
The force of the explosion was so
great however that all the windows in
the houses across the street were
broken by the conclusion. The search
for more dead will be resumed at day.
break. None Of the injured are ex-
pected to die.
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