The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-22
Many DEAD N FLAMES
FOURTEEN PERISH IN FIRE FOL-.
LOWING EXPLOSION OF
FIREWORKS
DISASTER AT PATTERSON, N. +.
THE BUILDING, A FRAME TENE-
MENT, A MASS OF FLAMES Al
MOST IN MOMENT
DEAD BURNED TO A CRISP

NEW YORK June H.-Fourteen peopIa
are believed to have been killed and \
number injured today in a fire following.
an explosion among a quantity Of fire.
works in the store of Abraham NJ. Rit-
tenburg, at Paterson, N ]. The property
loss will not exceed $S5,CO0. The dead ere,
Mrs. LUCINDA ADAMsON
MRS. CHARLES WILLIAMS. burned
trying to save her husband
CHARLES WILLIAMS, a cripple
HAROLD RITTENBURG, eighteen
months Old. son Of the keeper of the fire.
works store.
HENRY ELAsSER. baby.
I1ose missing and almost certainly
MRS. BERT BAMBERG.
CHARLES BAMBERG, six months old.
MRS. ANDREW ELVIN was in the
house and has not been seen since thS
MRS. MARY BLAssER.
Joseph ELVIN, baby of Mrs Andrew
MRS. BURNS, not seen since explosion
ana known TO have been in the house.
% SCl1ARENCE BURNS. six-year-old son
MRS. ANN FENTENANN. not seen
since the explosion and known to have
been in the house.
MRS. ANNIE LANNIGAN. seen to en-
Ter her apartments a few minutes before
Lhe explosion. Two nepheWs OF Mrs
I.annlgan were with her when she en-
teIeq her rooms Their names have not
yet been ascertained.
The injured
j. ,Jessup, bruised and burned about
the head and body.
Mrs Mrs. !. Jessup. bruised and burned
Bamberger, head and face burned.
George Soder, head severely cut
NlchoiaS Hillman, cut on head
ard .
by falling wall.
Mr., and Mrs. John McGlone. burned
ABOUT face and bodies.
HEAVY EXPLOSION.
a number of people received minor in
| Juries, but went to their homes Tho ex
| ploslon occurred shortly after noon. and
many OF the occupants of the bmldine.
were out at dinner The building in
which the explosion occurred was a
frame tenement, four stories high WITH
! stores on the ground floor The middle
J store was occupied by Rittenburg Ten
FAMILIES occupied flats in the building. So
| great was the force of the explosion thar
q boy playing in the street half q block
away was lifted from his feet and hurled
against an iron fence. One Of his legs
! was broken. A trolley car was dfrectT,,
in front Of the building when the expIo.
sion occurred. The burst of fame blown
out into the street scorched the sides OF
the car and singed the hair Of the pas
sengcrs.
A number of those who We're on the
upper floors Of the building when the
explosion took place were either stunned
and then burned to death or found CO.
cape cut off and were suffocated. After
the first explosion there was a succession
OF smaller ones, and then came q. second
Dig explosion which was muffied and
| oeadened, and probably occurred In the
cellar.
Every window seemed to be emitting
flame within minute after the first ex
pIos1on. A woman, her clothing on fire
leaped out Of one Of the windows and
fell to the yard below. Her dead BODY
was dragged out of reach of the flames.
put her flesh was roasted and dropped
from the bones. She later proved to be
Mrs. Williams.
Mrs. Williams husband was q cripple
Ats Wife Is supposed to have remained
longer than she could with safety In an
effort to save him. He was found burned
to crisp on his bed
MANY WE'RE RESCUED
Some of the occupants of the rooms
dropped from the windows and were
bruised. Others hung from the windows
until the fremen came Twenty persons
were taken down in this way through
the fire and smoke by the fremen, while
others dropped into life nets.
Daniel DoOley, who was in the ward
when the explosion took place, saw the
two Rittenburg children in the rear room
and rushed into the flames for them He
got one Of them and carried 1t out and
tried to go back for the other. but the
room was then one mass Of FIRE and
he was too late. He was badly scorched
in fescuinG the first child
Whlle the rescues Were going on the
firemen were fighting the flames. Can't.
Allen led with a hose line in an efrort
to keep the fire from the upper floors.
where it was said many were penned in.
The men had hardly taken their positions
and begun on the sidewalk to throw
water into the upper floors, when. with
out any warning, the whole upper part
OF the building above them sagged out
ward and fell. The captain and two Of
his men were buried under the blazing
debris. One Of the men Is badly hurt
The building in which the explosion oc-
CURED was entirely DESTROYED.
Rittenburg will probably be arrested
pending an investigation. In the debris
was found the head of a man or a
woman. The hair is burned off and the
features unrecognizable. The remainder
of the body has not yet been found. The
bodies taken out thus far are almost un-
recognizable, and are burned and torn
by the fire and the collapse OF the tim
bers Of the building.