The Indianapolis journal., 1900-10-30
STORY OF THE DISASTER.
Lower End OF Manhattan Stricken as
if by an EarthUuake.

H
NEW YORK, Oct. 29.-The long list of
fire horrors that have occurred in and
around the city of New York. a district
that includes the Royal Hotel fire. the
Park-place disaster and the Windsor and
Hoboken fires, was added to to-day by
fire and explosion that shook the lower end
of Manhattan like an earthquake, hurled
a seven-story building into the air and set
fire to two blocks of buildings, with a loss
of life that only the efforts Cf hundreds of
men, who were rushed to the work of dig
ging away the ruins as soon as the fire
was extinguished, will reveal.
The big building of Tarrant & Co., MAX
ers. of medicinal specialties, standing at
the northwest corner of Greenwich and
Warren streets and filled with chemicals,
took fire in some way that may never be
known at about 12:15 O clock this afternoon.
1t was sixteen minutes after noon that
citizen rushed into the house of Fire En-
gine %. on Chambers street, near Green
wich, and shouted that Tarrant's drug
store was on fire. He had seen a volume
of black smoke coming from the third
story window. An alarm was turned in.
Soon afterward second and third alarms
were turned in. One fire company had just
and threw the entire engines crew down
the stairway. The. firemen, realizing the
danger of their position, rushed out Of the
building to the street. The explosion had
filled the street in front with a shower of
falling glass and small debris. which sent
the crowd, which was already gathered on
the opposite side of the walk. fleeing for
safety, and caused the horses hitched to
the engines to rear and try to get away.
Engineer Rocksberry was unfastening the
horses, and Fireman Brown. of the COM
pany, was turning the safety valve of the
engine when the explosion occurred and
covered them with a shower of glass. Both
were injured. as was another fireman be-
longing to the company.
HURLED ACROSS THE STREET
Captain Devanney ordered his crew back
into the building again. They were drag
ging the line to the doorway for the Sec
ond time when another explosion, more
terrific than the first, came and the whole
crew was hurled across Greenwich street,
Devanney being so badly injured that he
was sent to hospital.
In the meantime the other engines that
had responded to the alarm had collected
and the firemen were busy rescuing people
from surrounding buildings. Firemen had
already taken many girls down the only
fire escape upon the building, and more
persons had been carried down the escapes
of the Homemade Restaurant next door,
and the buildings adjoining upon Warren
street.
The second explosion occurred about five
minutes after the first. From the accounts
of witnesses. the building seemed to leap
into the air, and in a moment masses of
brick wall, timbers and stone were fall
ing into the street. The force of the ex-
plosion tore away the walls of the big COM
mission storehouse fronting on Washington
street, and caused them to collapse, falling
all at once In mass OF timbers. boxes and
barrels from which flames which burst out
from the Tarrant building like the beichinr
of cannon. at once broke forth.
Across Warren street to the opposite
buildings the flames leaped, setting them all
afre at once the force OF the explosion de-
molishing windows and all wooden struc-
lures about the place. In a moment War
rem street was choked up with mass Of
great srei explosion was followed by half "a a
dozen more scarcely less intense. and by
a countless number of smaller ones.
BY this time the drec,,dpP hre apParatus was r- ar
Ahearn came about two minutes after the
second series of explosions and he at once
ordered a fifth alarm sent out. followed by
q general call for ambulances. The ex-
plosioa and fire together had now assumed
the proportions of catastrophe and 1t was
thought that hundreds of lives had been
lost Throngs OF people were rushing about
In the nearby streets, many of them panic
stricken, fleeing from the fire. These ming
led in the crowd that was rushing down
The heads of city departments concerned
In the manv-sided disaster hurried to the
scene OF the IRE. Chief Devery. OF the po-
lice department. with Deputy Chief Nc
McCluskey or the detective bureau. were