The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-08-09
HOUSES WRECKED By EXPLOSION
A Terrible Disaster In Philadelphia.
Loss OF Life Yet Unknown

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Philadelphia, August ga terrific
explosion in a block Of six buildings on
lows: Locust street.-the. zoos, House
completely wrecked 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
seriously injured. Some of those TAX
en- to the hospital will die. 1t is esti-
mated that at least thirty-five persons
were in the five buildings when the ex-
plosion occurred. and the exact number
of "a will probably not be known
for twenty-four hours.
The buildings were occupied as fol-
lows: Locust street.-the. zoos, House
mans pool and billiard rooms; No. 1910,
Morris RosenthaPs second hand cloth
ing store, occupied by Rosenthal, his
wife and five children; No. 1912, William
Jones, cOlored, restaurant, occupied BY
Jones and about fifteen boarders; No.
1014. George McClemmy's grocery
store, occupied by McCIemny, clerk and
servan girl; No. 1016, Patrick Quig-
ley's grocery store, occupied by Quig-
ley, his wife. three children and his
uncle; No. 1918, Albert Mountains
grocery and meat store, occupied by
Mountain. his mother, sister and clerk.
The explosion occurred about $3.50
o'clock. What exploded and how 1t
happened is not known at his time, but
it is believed TO have been a barrel of
gasoline in one of the three grocery
stores.
With the exception of No. zoos the
front walls of the building were blown
outward into the street, while the
floors and the roofs were blown up
ward and fell straight to the ground.
Almost every building in a radius of
tu-n hlnnIyc N hnrIt tho aana of tho o.
plosion had window panes shattered
and was otherwise damaged. Every
building on the opposite side of Locust
streets was more or less wrecked, but
none of them fell.
a terrible cry went up from the ruins
the the explosion occurred.
Women, children and men, occupants
of the wrecked houses, could be seen
crawling from the debris while the ag-
onizing cries of others were heard in
the w~reckage. From all the surround
ing buildings injured people came run
ming and fell in the street unconscious.
To d to the horror, fire broke out in
the debris the momen it settled to
the ground, and in less than five min
utes the great pile was burning fierce
ly from end to end. A general alarm
was turned in for fire apparatus and
ambulances. In the meantime, the
work of rescue was voluntarily begun
by those in the n~eighbOrhood that were
not injured. Here and there a 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 Roadway
and were igniting the buildings across
the street. The fire, however, was SOC
under control, and with the exception
of a small blaze here and there, the fire
JvaS nvtio M icbn1 in n fnu- poinr1fnC
The work of digging away the ruins
then was begun in earnest. Near the
edge of the debris several colored men
were taken out and sent to the hospi-
tails.
While the firemen and policemen
were digging into the debris n haul
ing away heavy timbers in several
sections of the w~reckage, cries were
heard coming from the cellar of Noun
tain'S grocery store. Fifty men, with
rope and tackle were Immediately put
to work at that point, and pulled away
the roofing which had fallen into a
maSsed heap. From the bottom of the
pile. doubled up, were taken a man and
a woman The man was able to speak,
but the woman was apparently dead.
While the work of rescue was going
on IN the exploded block, hospital at
PENDANTS and others made a search of
all, the damaged houses on the oppo-
site side of the street, and almost a
score of persons were taken to various
hospitals from these places.
The Jefferson and Pennsylvania hos
pitfalls, which are located nearest to the
scene of the explosion, were soon
crowded with the injured. None Of
those taken to the hospital has died
up to midnight.
Two hundred men are now at work
tearing away the wreckage.
The buildings containing the pool
rooms, clothing store and the restaurant
were three story brick structures. The
other buildings were two and one-half