The age-herald., 1900-10-30
Scene in Mecklen Offices

DdQ ulel anu pOStSu d Sl5h III ihC hAhNS" stating that the bank would do business tomorrow morning.
 Scene in Mecklen Offices
 Down in Mecklen Bros offices in the basement there was H. H. Mecklen and his brother William, with Frank Heckenberry' a boy, Thomas Hackett, a clerk, another man named Bruce and some girls, among
 them Ellen Van Deen and May Dunkle- mann, When the fire broke out $90,0OO In money lay upon the counter. Heckenberry
 was stationed at the door while this was gathered up for putting in the vault. The
 first explosion filled the place with sulphur
 ous smoke that nearly asphyxiated every body The second explosion blew in the
 windows and cut the Meckens seriously The boy Heckenberry found the two girls lying in heap, where they had tainted away. He carried them out to a place or safety The others, when they came to their senses, gathered the money from the fioer put it into cigar boxes and carried It to Waddell & Co.'S
 A barber shop in the building demol- ished, the barbers and two customers that were being shaved being driven to the street The other tenants of the building, number of lawyers and brokers, all es- capped without injury
 The explosion completely demolished the windows along Greenwich street on both
 sides for three blocks in both directions. The street was covered with fine bits or glass The force of the explosion carried away skyights as a storm might, and the castings of doors were broken with the glass. The explosion did not spare the in-
 terior of the stores, everything being heap ed in confusion.
 The explosion tore down the buildings to the west, the walls of those the War ren street side being hurled outward to the streets as if an explosion had taken place locally instead of away at the Green Wich street end of the block The immense bl1i1dingg Of S I MOhmann X Co, front ing on Washington street, simply col lapSed, a deluge of barrels and boxes filled with fruit rolling out and forming pile that stretched half way across the street. At the time of the explosion blazing bar rels were hurled clear across Washington street and set fire to the buildings to the west, threatening an extension of the con-
 1agration in that direction, but the fire men deluged these buildings and saved them.
 The first reports of the fire that went out were that the Tarrant building had crashed upon two crowded restaurants and buried hundred or more in each. Subse- quent examination showed that if any per sons were caught in these places it was the kitchen help, and very few outsiders, if any. The patrons of the Home-Made Restaurant kept by man named Buck ley, were in the most imminent danger, but witnesses say all escaped.
 After the flames subsided clear view could be had into the dining-room, and no bodies could be seen, the place being un- touched by fire, though much damaged by the collapse of the building. man who watched the fire from across the street said that the crowd in the restaurant was evidently warned and swarmed out after the first explosion everybody being out when the second explosion occurred. A restaurant on the south side of War 7en street was in nearly as much danger, and the building was totally destroyed by Rra h,ttt Ina erOt I " fhnnUht that the cooks in the Buckley restaurant and some of the guests who tried to es- cape by a rear alley might have been caught.
 Outside of few who were injured in the streets the loss of life by the fire and eA- plosons must have occurred in the Tar -ant building and possibly in the buildings destroyed by fire.
 Secretary Allen, of the company, said there were forty-fve employees, and he
 thought all got out with the exception of one People who saw the fire declared, however, that more have been lost. A man named Sexton is said to have seen
 two men and woman at one of the top
 windows just before the building collapsed. Another said he saw a large number Of girls on fire escape just before the explo-
 sion, and that none could have escaped. Other witnesses saw a crowd of about twenty girls come out of the Tarrant build ing and run away.
 Ole yOuIlS NOIitL S4AOI, ployed at Breitenbachs, is said to have jumped out of a window, and was taken to a hospital with her legs broken. The only person known to have been kill ed up to o'clock tonight was man who died in the hospital from injuries received in the street.
 Bremen Safe Chief Croker at an early hour said there were no firemen missing, although it had been reported that entire company could not be found, and it was supposed that they had been lost under the ruins of the col lapsed commission houses in Washington street.
 number of fremen were injured invari- ous ways, however, and scores of persons