River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-11-01
DEATH AND DISASTER
Thirty Persons Reported to Have
Perished in Fire in New York.
Flames Cause Explosions in Drug
House and Many buildings Are
Wrecked-Property Loss Ex-
pected TO Reach 81 100000.

New York, Oct. 3o.-As the result of
a small fire several successive explo-
sions of chemicals occurred in the
wholesale drug house of Tarrant q Co.,
at Warren and Greenwich streets, Mon
day and blew down a dozen buildings
and badly damaged a score of others.
The loss of life is not known, but
from all sources of information it is
gathered that there are perhaps the
bodies of 80 persons in the ruins, though
because of the hot debris and the slow
ness of moving il no body had been re-
moved up to midnight. The disaster
was one of the most terrible that has
ever occurred in this city and rivals the
Windsor hotel fire in its appalling re-
suits, though in loss of property il will
be worse. Chief Croker, of the fire de
partment, said that the loss is fully
81 100000.
The action of the tremendous ca
tastrophe was more vivid and awful
than the city has seen for long time.
Buildings fell in on themselves or top
pied over on others, iron girders were
thrown yards away, smashing through
great walls, whole structures fell into
the streets on piles so that the line of
thoroughfare could not be marked out,
huge splinters of iron, steel and wood
were flung into the streets and into the
buildings clean through the walls,
where they buried women and men,
people walking through the streets
were knocked down and dangerously
injured by timbers, glass and steel.
horses were thrown down, wagons,
windows store fronts and all sorts of
property for blocks in every direction
were wrecked and damaged. There are
IS persons reported missing and 100
men, women and children are on tho
list of the injured. Chief Croker said
that no firemen had persisted in the
fire, all his men having been accounted
for.
Origin of the Fire.
OF the origin of the fire no exact in
formation is yet to be had. The flames
were first seen on the third or fourth
floor of the building at the northwest
corner of Warren and Greenwich
streets, occupied by Tarrant & Co. 1t
is possible that the fire resulted from
imperfect insulation of electric light
wires, but it is the opinion of Fire Chief
Croker and Commissioner Scannell
that carelessness among chemicals was
the cause of the fire. Although the
city regulations against the storing
of chemicals are of the strictest kind,
Commissioner Scannell made the spe-
cific charge that Tarrant & CO. had
paid no heed TO the law and had placed
in storage chemicals and explosives far
exceeding the legal limit.
The Loss of Life.
Outside of few who were injured
in the streets, the loss of life by the
fire and explosion must have occurred
in the Tarrant building mainly, and
possibly in the other buildings de-
stroyed by the fire. The number of per-
sons in the Tarrant building was esti-
mated to be in the neighborhood of so.
Secretary Allen, of the company, said
that there were As employees, and he
thought all got out with the exception
of one. The only person known to have
been killed up to eight o'clock Mon
day night was a man who dled in one
of the hospitals from the result of an
injury received in the stree.