The Indianapolis journal., 1900-10-30


John p. Phillips. is known to have escaped
Another. an old man eighty years OF age
named Callahan. Phillips thought, muEt
The top floor was a Chemical laboratory,
used by Louis Patterson. the chemist Cf
the concern. and two men and two girls
fEeiped him there. Phillips was inclined 10
think that most of these escaped. although
at late hour Patterson himself had not
been heard from.
Phillips said that he saw the fire while
out at lunch, and rushed into the building
to try to warn the people inside. he went
TO his own department and yelled fire. then
ne made his way up to the NTH floor. ne
bach premises. which are separated from
the Tarrant rooms. but he got up to the
fifth floor and then found that the way
was cut off by flames. Seeing there was
so much fire he hurried out. having been
warned that there were explosives in the
place. He yelled TO the firemen as he came
down to get out for their lives. as there
would be an explosion How many OF
the girls and other employees escaped could
not be guessed even tonight although
large number of missing persons Indicated
that there were some. 1t was said thas
lunch.
UNCoNFIRMED RUMoRs.
A rumor went around that boy had
been seen at one Of the nearby restaurants
getting lunches for fifteen girls who were
waiting in the building. A man named
Sexton is said to have seen two men and
woman at one Of the top floor windows.
just before the building collapsed. An
other witness said he saw four girls being
carried down the rear fire escapes by men
of Truck 10. AS no firemen have been
supposed to have been lost these girls
probably were saved. Another witness
said that he saw large number of girls
n hQfOre EXPLOSION
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, one girl Lena SPIRIT.
of Eas. Fifth street being reported killed
by flying debris, when she turned 10 go
back for something. One young woman
named Pelton, employed at Breitenbach's
Is said to have jumped out OF a window
and been taken to hospital with both
legs broken.
The only person known to have been
killed up to o'clock tonight was man
who died in one of the hospitals from the
result of an injury received in the street.
Chief Croker at an early hour said there
were no firemen missing, although ii had
been reported that an entire company
could not be found, and 1t was supposed
they had been lost under the ruins of
the collapsed commission house on Wash
| ington street. number of firemen were
injured in various ways, however and
scores of persons received injuries of every
degree from falling debris in the streets.
Firemen and policemen covered with blood
were common sights at the beginning OF
the fire. and one of the latter, Calvin, OF
| the Church-street station, who was badly
cut UP while assisting a fireman out of the
| wreck on Washington street. was certain
that firemen had been buried under the
cave-in Of the building.
Policeman Kally. of the steamboat squad,
was reported killed, but later turned up
at a hospital with his face badly hurt.
He had been on Warren street assisting
| people to escape when the explosion oc-
| Cured and he was caught under a shower
| of falling things.
Policemen Quirk and Cohen were carrying
| a wounded fireman away from the build
| ing after the first explosion across Green
| wich street. The second explosion came
| and threw the three down cellar en-
| trance across the street, where they were
picked up. A number OF firemen were on
| a ladder placed against the building from
| the elevated structure when the second ex-
| plosion came They managed to escape
BUSINESS MEN INDIGNANT.
There was great indignation among the
| business men of the vicinity when they
| learned the part that the explosion had
played in the general catastrophe. An ex-
| plosion from this drughouse had not been
unexpected, as 1t was generally believed in
| the neighborhood that there were explo-
sive chemicals in the place. j. S. Coward
| shoe manufacturer, of 26S Greenwich
street. whose place was wrecked by the
explosion. said that it was the general talk
in the neighborhood about the chemicals
in the Tarrant building NJ: Dickson, men,
ber of the firm of r. w. Dickson & Son,
of Washington street declared tonight
| that for several weeks neighbors had no.
! ticed barrels and carboys going into the
| building Everybody was apprehensive of
| fire in that particular place.
Philips the engineer at Tarrant's, said
| when he described his own hurried exit
| from the burning building, that Patterson,
| the chemist, had told him some time ago
| that there were dangerous chemicals in
| the place, and that, if it ever caught fire
| the best thing the people employed there
could do would be TO get as far away as
quickly as they could.
| George Murray, inspector of combustibles
of the fire department. said after the ire
| that Tarrants had permit for the storing
| of one barrel of turpentine, one barrel OF
| benzine and one hundred pounds of col
| lodilim, with alcohol. He could not say that
| this amount had been exceeded. Fire
Commissioner Scannell however, was not
| backward about denouncing the firm for
| carrying more explosives than 1t had a
right TO.
| The fire boats were called TO the fire
| early, and thousands of feet of hose were
| stretched from the river front TO the burn
| ing buildings.
At 3 o'clock the fire was completely un-
| der control OF the fremen. the flames still
| burning fiercely in the interior of the
| burned area, but danger Of spreading being
| over At D. m. the flames had been ex-
| tinguished in the buildings fouth of War
| rem street, and crowds of men from the
building department were put to work
tearing down high walls. AT the same
| time workmen were hurried by the Ele-
| waited Railroad Company to repair the
downtown track.
| The force of the explosion was distinctly
felt in Wall street, where the accompany
ing noises made people think that an earth
| quake had happened on the lower East
| Side. In the vicinity of Trinity Church
| there was much alarm. and IL was feared
| that the lofty spire of the old edifice was
about to topple over. The air was full of
scraps of paper and charred wood, and
/ postal card, badly scorched and addressed
| to Tarrant & Co., fell in the roadway in
front of the Broad-street entrance of the
| Mills building.
The atmosphere throughout the down
| town district was surcharged with strong
| odor. as il Of acids. The roofs of the tall
buildings were soon crowded with specta-
| tors, and considerable anxiety was mani
| tested.
RUMORS WE'RE CURRENT.
| Rumors OF great loss Of life ran through
| the crowds that surrounded the fire area
| all afternoon and kept the police of the
whole island busy controlling it. The ar
rival of apparatus was greatly hindered by