The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1900-11-02
TERRIBLE DISASTER
Flames and Explosives De-
stroy Life and Property.
DOWN TOWN NEW YORK SHAKEN.
Fire In Tarrants Wholesale Drug
Store Reaches Chemicals, Caus-
ing Terrific ExpIOsiOn-Un-
known Number Killed

place has there been such a horror @
fire, explosion, falling walls and loss O.
life as that which occurred yesterda!
along Warren street between Greenwich
and Washington streets, with the new
seven story brick building of Tarrant
Co., druggist and chemists, as the start
ing point of destruction and the fear
some center of interest. In less than Il
minutes, from II o'clock to the quarter
after Warren street between Washing
ton and Greenwich was a mass of higf
north and south by Chambers and Muir
ray streets were ablaze. All the north
side of Warren street was down, swept
clean by the rear wall of the Tarrant
building as it was blown out by a ter
rife explosion. Half the buildings Oh
the south side of Warren street were
down, crushed in the same way. The
big coffee roasting plant of the Eppen
Smith 81 Wiemann company in the mid
die of the block was afre from top to
bottom and its front caved in. What
grewsome story of death was hidden I'M
der the heaps Of stone, brick, beams and
heavy machinery could only be guess
ed at.
Estimates put the loss of life at from
90 to 100 and more. The injured, who
came from every store and Office along
the street, struck by flying stones and
rafters and shattered glass, probably
counted over 100. Ambulances by the
dozen stood in nearby streets, and the
surgeons had their hands full of work.
How the fire started none could be
found who knew or guessed 1t broke out
in the Tarrant building at II o'clock,
when smoke was seen curling thinly out
of third floor window on the Warren
street side. The place was stocked with
chemicals, and these caused the frightful
feature of the disaster, the explosions
following fast on the heels of the alarm
of fire. The whole lower part of the
city felt the shock, and streets for blocks
leading to the scene were paved with
glass from windows and doors, whose
empty frames told of the force of the
quakes.
1t was not until o'clock that the fire.
men, under Chief Croker's personal d.
rection, had the flames under control.
At one time they threatened two whole
blocks.
A dull low reverberating explosion, a
quick volcanic swirl of smoke and dust
and FIRE, and whole block of business
buildings reaching from Greenwich street
to Washington on Warren had lifted,
cracked like a crushed eggshel and
crumbled into dust. Within FIVE min
utes the jumbled, tangled pile was roar
Ing like a furnace, the rows of tall build
lnRs across the street had caught like set
pieces of fireworks, and the crowds who
hed white faced from the terror behind
them seemed to be pursued by the crash
Ing shower of glass and the line of leap
ing fire.
What had happened was this: A fire
had started in Tarrant & Co.'s drug
warehouse ON the northwest corner of
Greenwich and Warren streets. 1t had
burned long enough for the alarm to be
sent in, for the iremen to arrive and get
their pipe lines playing on it and for an
insurance patrol, who, it was supposed,
lost their lives, to get inside a building
before it fell. Suddenly out from the
midst of the FIRE there flashed a strange
pink flame. The men in the coffee ware
house across the street saw that flame
and yelled:
Run for your lives! She's going to
blow upw
Almost instantaneously with that, be-
rem street could more than turn in their
tracks, there came the heart clutching
earthquake roar and the whole north side
of Warren street crashed into ruins. The
fire in the drughouse reached the explo-
sive chemicals-just what no one knew
at the time-and the dozen or so build
ings and storehouses, with the people in
them and the fremen working beneath,
were hurled down in as chaotic a mass
as though the basement of the whole
block had been filled with dynamite.
Every window for a half dozen blocks
in each direction crashed to the pavement
as the puff of air struck against the sides
ofjthe buildings. From the burning build
ings TO the river and in the other direc-
ton up to Broadway there were streams
of white faced people fleeing as though
from burning city. Some of them had
handkerchiefs twisted around their wrists
some had hands pressed to their faces,
where the chunks of broken glass had
gashed them as they fell. Here and there
all through the tangled streets horses
stood with one leg up, while blood ran
down their fetlocks and over their hoofs.
Within a half dozen minutes the streets
were jammed with a crowd running from
the fire.
At the time the explosion took place
Broadway was thronged. The full force
of the explosion appeared to sweep up
Warren street and Park place. Simulta-
nsously with the shaking of the earth
came three distinct blasts of hot air and
the smell of drugs. The hot air blasts
caused people to throw their hands before
their eyes. At the corner of Broadway
and Park place an elderly lady was
thyown heavily to the sidewalk.
When lifted to her feet, she began to
cry Historically. Scores of women rush
ed to the east side of Broadway Men
With blanched faces turned into Broad
way from Warren street, declaring that
hundreds of people had been killed and
that the danger was not yet over. To add
to the excitement horses attached to
heavy trucks reared when they felt the
earth tremble beneath them. The panic
was over in a few minutes, and then the
people turned to watch the debris which
had been carried up into the air by the
explosion.
1t was exactly five minutes from the
time of the three loud explosions before
any of the debris fell into the street. A
piece of tin three feet square slowly sank
to the pavement on Broadway in front Of
The Mail and Express building. For sew