The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-14
The Steel Gas
Tank.
STREETS FLOODED.
The Loss of Life Cannot be
Estimated.

New York, Dec. 1S.-The great steel
gas tank of the Consolidated Gas Com
pany at Avenue A and goth street, the
largest of It's kind in the world, col
lapsed at $50 o'clock this afternoon.
1t went down with d crash and a roar
like a great explosion. Masonry Of gran
tie blocks and bricks to the height of
80 feet fell like child's toy house of
blocks, and eight million gallons Of
water were let loose, which deluged the
street, and in a ten-foot tidal wave
carried death and destruction through
the neighborhOod. 1t is not known how
many were killed and injured. The list
Of injured is very large. The dead so
Gar are:
Andrew Wendt. workman.
Pious Baum, engineer, adjacent fac
tory.
John Gray, rs years old.
rrlse injured are: Catherine O'Connell
four year old, leg fractured, contusions;
Mary Ann O'Connell, badly lacerated
body; Timothy Dunn, general contus-
ions and submersiOn by water; Jacob
Wagner, general contusions; William
Kane, face lacerated, general cOntus-
ions; Charles Quigg, severely injured
dislocated shoulder.
About 10 others, so far as has been
learned, were injured more or less Sc
verely or almost drowned. All of the
most severely injured were taken 10
Bellevue hospital.
W. J. Logan. of the Logan iron works
of Greenpoint, l.. l., the contractor who
was building the tank, arrived on the
scene few minutes after the collapse
and was placed under arrest.
William II. Bradley, chief engineer
of the Consolidated Gas Company, and
said to be jointly responsible for tho
work with Contractor Logan, was also
placed under arrest. Both were charg-
ed with homicide, and their bail was
placed at $4,000 each.
The plant Of the Consolidated Gas
Company occupies several blocks in the
neighborhood Of Avenue A and TWen-
tieth street, . -at.5-
on Avenue A, beginning at goth
street, is the five story brick factory
Of Henry Fuldner, manufacturer of eX-
tension tables The other half Of the
block is occupied by five story tene-
nents, the property of the gas company,
and largely tenanted by its employees.
Immediately back of the factory and
tenements was the great steel tank,
I78 feet in diameter and 100 feet high.
Rising out of the ground and to a
height of so feet, was built great CIR
cular wall of granite and brick, many
feet in thickness. This was filled with
eight million gallons Of water. The tank
was supported by eight great steel up
rights two and a. half feet high. The
water in the pit fitting against the
tank made it gas tight" A gang Of
men were at work under foreman
filing the pit with water to make the
water test.
The tank, with gas capacity OF .
800 600 cubic feet, and costing S9OO,0O
seemed to withstand the test well. The
representatives Of the company and the
foreman in charge were congratulating
themselves upon the success of the
work. The Iaborers were beginning to
gather up their tools to knock off. There
were many people on the street and
crowded street cars were passing by.
Fifty or more men in Fuldners factory
were finishing UP their tasks.
Then suddenly, and without mo-
uent's warning. came an awful crash.
The men below had scarcely time to fly
from beneath the falling walls ere they
were picked up by the mass of rolling
water and hustled hundreds Of feet
away Into the basement the first and
second floors of the factory and tene-
nents rushed the angry flood, and with
it went death and destruction. Work
dows and carried a block or more as if
mere straws on the crest of flood. Wo-
men were washed cut of the flats from
the first floors and almost drowned.
Mary Ann O'Connell and her four
year-old sister, Catherine, We're seated
at the front windows on the second
floor of 1886 Avenue A. A rush of water
struck them both smashing through
the door and carrying them half q
iYoiI
little one perhaps fatally. Henry F'uld-
ner was carried almost to 21st street
His son was also carried out of his Of
fee by the water, but was caught in
the debris, and but for the arrival of
workmen with axes he would have been
drowned. Andrew Wendt was near the
base of the tank when it collapsed. He
was carried away by the rushing
Waters His mangled and almost naked
body was found against an elevated
railroad pillar at 21st and 4th avenue
more than a block away. Hugh Kelly
and Thos. Kearney, Is years old boys,
We're playing in the rear of their tene-
ment No. 1888 Avenue a, when the food
came upon them They swan around
for five minutes or more and were oil
most exhausted when policeman
pulled them out
The morning newspapers, however,
suffered principally from this disas-
ter. Those that use linotypes had a
vast amount of trouble. as a result of
the failure of the gas pressure. Some
of the papers We're supplied with gas
oline burners, but for a time it APP
peared as though a return to the meth
cd Of setting type by hand would be
inevitable. Finally, however, by shift
ing the burners and elevating them
enough heat was generated to heat
the metal, and the work of compost
ton proceeded