The age-herald., 1901-08-06
At Least Twenty Persons Are Believed to be Dead and
 Scores Are Injured
ENTIRE BLOCK DEMOLISHED
Cause of the Explosion Is Unknown, But It Is Believed to Have Been
 a Gasoline Tank In a Grocery
 store-Hospitars Crowded.

Philadelphia, August 5.-A terrific ex- plosion in block of six buildings Tn Locust street, above Tenth tonight com pletely destroyed five of the structures and caused the death of from ten to twen- ty or more persons. Over two score of others were more or less seriously in- Jured. Some of those taken to the hos pitfalls will die It is estimated that at least thirty-five persons were in the five buildings when the explosion occurred, and the exact number of dead probably will not be known for twenty-four hours.
 The buildings were occupied as fol- lows:
 Locust street, No 1OO0s, Housemans pool and billiard rooms
 Locust street, No. 1O10, Roses Rosen- thal's secondhand clothing store, occu- pied by Rosenthal, his wife and five children
 Locust street, No. 1012, wm. Jones, col- ored, restaurant. occupied by Jones and about fifteen boarders.
 Locus street, No. 1014. George McLem- my's grocery store, occupied by McLem- my. clerk and servant girl
 Locust street, No. 1o16, Quigiey's grocery store. occupied by Quigley. his wife. three children and his uncle.
 Locust street, No. 101s. Albert Moun- tens grocery and meat store, occupied by Mounten, brother. sister and clerk.
 The explosion occurred about 9:30 o'clock What exploded and how 1t hap pened is not known at this time, but it Is believed to have been a barrel of gasoline &t.~ every building in a radius of two blocks of the explosion had window panes shat tered and were otherwise damaged Every building of the opposite of Locust street was more or less wrecked, but none of them fell
 A Terrible Cry.
 A terrible cry went up from the ruins the moment the explosion occurred. wo- men, children and men occupants of the wrecked houses, could be seen craw- Ing from the debris, while the agoniz- ing cries of others were heard in the wreckage. From all the surrounding buildings injured people came running and fell into the street, unconscious. To add to the horror, fire broke out in the debris the moment 1t settled to the ground and in less than five minutes the great pile was burning flercely from end to end. A general alarm was turned in for fire apparatus and ambulances, and in the meantime the work of rescue was voluntarily begun by those in tho neigh borhood, who were not injured. Here and there person was dragged from the ruins before the fire could reach the victim several lives being saved by this prompt work. When the firemen reached the scene the flames had made great headway and were igniting the buildings across the street. The fire. however, wa ssoon under control.
 The work of digging away the ruins was then begun In earnest Near the edge of the debris several colored men were taken out and sent to the hospitals. While the firemen and policemen were digging in the debris and hauling away heavier timbers in several sections of the wreckage, cries were heard coming from the cellar of Mounten's grocery store Fifty men, with rope and tackle. were immediately put to work at that point and pulled away the roofing and flooring which had fallen into massed heap From the bottom of the pile doub- led up were taken man and woma The man was able to speak, but the wo- man was apparently dead. Many Injured Were Found. While the work of rescue was going on in the exploded block hospital attendants and others made search of all the dam aged houses on the opposite side of the street and almost score of persons were taken to various hospitals from these places.
 The Jefferson and the Pennsylvania hos- pitals, which are located nearest the scene of the explosion, were crowded soon with the injured. None of those taken to the hospital died up to midnight Two hum dred men were then at work clearing away the wreckage.
 The buildings containing the pool rooms, clothing store and the restaurant were three-story brick structures while the other three buildings were two and one half stories.
 At 1:30 this CTuesday) morning the only known deaths are those at the hospitals that of an unknown negro woman and a 2-year-old negro child At the Pennsyi- vania Hospital five negro patients will, 1t is thought, die before morning. Others at the various hospitals will also die. Up to 1:3O a. m the police or fire officials cannot add to the list of the dead, but are posi- tive that a number of bodies are still buried under the ruins. There are many persons missing.
 At 9 a. m. the rescuers came across an inanimate body of a colored woman, but. remarkable to relate, the woman was alive, and asked for water. She had been in the ruins for four and half hours. Later a dead negro man was found.
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