The Atlanta constitution., 1900-11-07
LARGE LOSS OF LIFE
BY EXPLOSION IN
NEW YORK

N EW YORK, October 29.-The iont
M list of fire horrors that have oc
Cured In and around the city o
New York. list that includes the Roya
hotel fire. the Park Place disaster and the
Windsor and HobolSen fires. was added u
today by a fire and explosion that shooH
the lower end of Manhattan like an earth
quake. 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 of the hundreds of men VINO
were rushed to the work OF digging away
the ruins as soon as the fire was ex-
tinguished will reveal.
The big building OF Tarrant &c Co,
r.akers OF medicinal specialties standing
at the northwest corner of Greenwich and
Warren streets. and filed with chemicals
took fire in some way that may never be
known, at about quarter after Il O'CLOCK
this afternoon. 1t was sixteen minutes
after noon that n citizen rushed into the
house of fire engine 20. on Chambers
street, near Greenwich. and shouted that
Tarrant's drughouse was on fire. He had
seen a volume of black smoke coming
from the third-story window. An alarm
vas turned in.
alarms were turned In. One fire company
had just arrived when terrific explosion
occurred and threw the entire engines
crew down the stairway. The fiTemcn,
realizing the danger Of their position.
rushed out of the building to the street.
The explosion had filed the street in
front with a shower of falling glass and
small debris, which sent the crowd. which
had already gathered on the opposite
sidewalks. fleeing for safety. and caused
the horses hitched to the engines TO rear
and try To get away.
Engineer Rocksberry vas unfastening
the horses. and Fireman Brown. of the
company, was turning the safety valve
Of the engine when the explosion occurred
and cove ed them with shower OF glass.
Both were injured, as was another fire
man belCr ging to the company.
Captaip Dovanney, of the compa ny. or
dered his crew back into the building
again. They were dragging the line TO
the doorway a second time when another
explosion. more terrific than thu first,
came. anC the whole crew was hurled
across Greenwich street. Devanney being
So badly injured that he was sent to n
he spital.
In the meantime the other engines that
had responded to the alarm had collected.
pie from surrounding buildings. Firemen
had already taken many girls down the
only fire escape upon the building and
moro persons had been carried down the
escapes Of the Home Made restaurant,
next dor. 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 n moment masses Of brick wall. tim
bers and stone were falling into the
streets The force of the explosion tore
away the walls Of the big commission
store house fronting on washington
street. ana caused them 20 collapse, fall
ing all at once in a mass Of timbers.
boxes and barrels, from which the flames.
which burst out from the Tarrant build
ing like the belching of a cannon, at once
broke forth.
Across Warren street 10 the opposite
buildings the flames leaped setting them
all aiire at once. the force OF the eN-
plosion demolishing windows ana all
wooden structures about the houses. In
a moment Warren street was choked mp
with 4 mass Of debris ana the whole
place was afame. The great explosion
was followed by half n dozen more
scarcely less intense. and by a. countless
number of smaller ones. By this time
the fire apparatus was arriving from
every direction. Deputy Chief Ahern
came about two minutes after the secoud
explosion. and he at once ordered a NTH
alarm sent out, followed by "a general
call for ambulauces. The explosion and
fire together had now assumed the pro-
portions Of great catastrophe. and 1t
was at first thought that hundreds Of
lives had been lost. Throngs Of people
were rushing about in the nearby streets,
many of them panic-stric6en. fleeing from
the fire They mingled I'm the crowd
that was rushing down from Broadway
to see what had happened.
Ifalf an hour after the explosion the
streets for blocks around the fire We're
crowded with lire apparatus. score of
amDulances with hundreds of police We're
being rushed from all the lower precincts
of the city to form lines, and many
priests from nearby parishes We're gong
here and there in the smoke obscured
thorOughfares, seeking for injured VINO
might need their aid. From the burning
districts a column Of smoke was rising
high i'm the air. mingled with flames that
could not be controlled by hundreds OF
streams thrown upon them.
Searching the Ruins for Bodies.
New York, October 31.-A revision made
tonight of those persons missing and
thought to have perished In the explosion
and fire at Tarrants drug house shows