The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-06
WRECKED BY EXPLOSION.
Many Persons Meet Their Death in
 Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, Aug. 5.-A terrible ex- plosion i n a block of six buildings on
 Locust Street, above Tenth tonight
 completely destroyed five of the struc-
 lures and caused the death of from ten
 to twenty or more persons. Over two score of.others were more or less seri- ously injured. Some of those taken to the hospital will die. It is estimated that at least thirty-five were in the five buildings when the explosion oc- cured 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. 100s. Hous- | mans pool and billiard rooms: 1010, | Moses Rosenthal's second hand cloth | ing store. occupied by Rosenthal. his wife and five children: 1912. William Jones .colored restaurant. occupied by | Jones and about fifteen boarders: l0l4 George McLemmy's grocery store. oc- cupied by McLemmy. clerk and servant girl; 1016 Quigley's grocery store. oc-
 cupied by Quigley, his wife. three chill
 dren and his uncle: 1918 Albert Moun- tens grocery and meat store. occupied by Mounten, brother sister and clerk. Many Buildings Damaged.
 The explosion occurred about 9:30 o'clock. What exploded and how 1t hap
 pened Is not known at this time. but
 1t is believed to have beeen a barrel of
 gasoline in one of the three groceries,
 Almost every building in a radius of
 two blocks of the explosion had window panes shattered and otherwise dam aged. Every building on the opposite
 side of of Locust Street was more or less wrecked, but none of them fell. A terrific cry went up from the ruins the moment the explosion occurred. Women, children and men, occupants of the wrecked houses, could be seen crawling from the debris, while the agonizing cries of others were heard in the wrackage. From all the surround ing buildings injured people came run
 ming and fell into the street, uncon-
 scious. To add to the horror, fire broke out in the debris the moment it settled
 to the ground. and in less than five
 minutes the great pile was burning fercely 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 be- gun by those in the neighborhood who were not injured. Here and there a
 person was dragged from the ruins be-
 fore 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, was soon under control.
 Digging Away the Ruins.
 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 hospi- tals. While the firemen and policemen
 were digging in the debris and haul ! ing away heavy timbers in several sections of the wreckage, cries were
 heard coming from the cellar of Noun tens 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 a massed heap. At the bot
 tom of the pile, doubled up, was a. man
 and woman. The man was able to
 speak. but the woman was dead. They
 were hauled out.
 While the work of resAe was going
 on in the explodeR block. hospital at tendants and others made a search of all the damaged houses on the oppo-
 site side of the street and almost score of persons were taken to various hospitals from these places.
 The Jefferson and the Pennsylvania
 Hospitals, which are located nearest the scene of the explosion, were crowd
 ed soon with the injured. None of those taken to the hospital died up to mid-
 night. Two hundred men were then at work clearing away the wreckage. :.
 The buildings containing the pool rooms, clothing store and the restau-
 rant were three-story brick structures,
 while the other three buildings were ond hal stories