Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-22
HE DEADLY FIREWORKS.
Terrific Explosion in Paterson
 Candy Store.

men worked all night and to-day searching for bodies in the ruins of the building No 40 Main street, which was destroyed by fire yesterday, after an explosion of fireworks in the store of A. NJ. Rittenburg. Up to II q. n. to-day the dead bodies of thirteen per- sons and the head of another had been taken from the ruins. The known dead are:
 Mrs Lucinda Adams.
 Mrs Patrick Burns
 Clarence Burns, q child about 6 years old.
 Charles Williams.
 Mrs Charles Williams.
 Harold Rittenburg. 14 months old,
 Annie Rittenburg, 5 years old.
 Willie Elsasser,
 Mrs Andrew Elvin.
 Mrs Annie Fentemal..
 Mrs Annie Lanigan.
 Joseph Elvin, 2 months old.
 A head supposed to be that of Mrs Elyin was found. The trunk is miss ing.
 Mrs Isiah Bamber
 Burton Bamber, $ weeks old.
 The missing are:
 Mrs Mary Duffy
 Mrs Mary Elsasser.
 Mrs Simon.
 At St Joseph's hospital it was said to-day that the injured who had been taken there are doing we'll and that all of them would recover. They are Mir and Mrs Jessup, injured about the head and burned on body; Rose Con- nelly, suffering from shock and con tusion; I. Bamber, burned about the head and face; John Aprons, school boy, cut and burned; George Soder, a schoolboy, badly cut about the head;' Nicholas Hilman. cut on the head; Ed ward Slingland, fireman, hurt by falling wall
 Mir and Mrs John McGlone, who were burned about the face and body, and who were taken to the hospital were able to go home last night.
 The, explosion occurred shortly after noon, when many of the occupants of the building were out for dinner. The building in which the explosion took place was a frame tenement house. four stories high, with stores on the ground floor. The middle store was occupied by Rittenburg. Ten families occupied flats in the building.
 Had the explosion occurred half an hour later death list of hundreds might have been rolled up, for adjoin- ing the wrecked building was No 3 school in which were hundreds or children. Not only was the school damaged. but large quantities of wreckage were hurled into it. Some of the school children playing near the schoolhouse were injured. So great was the force of the explosion that boy playing ill the street half q block away was lifted from his feet and hurled against an iron frence and one of his legs was broken. There was a trolley car in front of the building when the explosion occurred and the burst of flame scorched the sides of the car and singed the hair of the pas SengerS.
 Those who were on the upper floors of the building were either stunned and then burned to death, or found es- cape cut off and suffocated. After the first explosion there was series of smaller ones, and then came the sec- ond big explosion, which was muffied and deadened and probably occurred in the cellar. Every building in the was stripped of glass Families seated in them at their dinner were thrown from their chairs to the floor.
 Meanwhile the flames were bursting from every part of the tenement build ing. A woman appeared at one of the windows mass of flames. She leaped out and fell through the fire to the yard below. At great risk she was away, but it was too late to save her life. Later it was discovered that she was Mrs Williams, who is numbered among the dead.
 Mrs Williams's husband was a crip- pie. His wife is supposed to have re- mained longer than she could with safety in an effort to save him. He was found burned to crisp. on his bed. Mrs Zimmer. mother-in-law of Rittenburg, is known to be dead It is said she was standing at the rear of the store talking to a travelling sales man when the explosion occurred What became of the salesman is not known. One of the worst finds among the debris was the head of an adult. The hair is burned off and the features unrecognizable
 Daniel Dooley was in the yard when the explosion took place. He saw the two Rittenburg children i'll the rear room and rushed into the flames for them. He got one of them and car ried it out and tried to go back for the other, but the room then was one mass of fire. Dooley was badly oCoICneu III EesculHS the HfST cnllu. From the front of the, building Mrs Jessup and her husband jumped to the sidewalk. They were seated at din- ner. and together they ran to the front window and leaped out. Jessup saws the explosion seemed to force the fire right through the floor under their feet
 Others of the tenants were mean while hanging from the windows, ready to drop. The firemen soon ar rived and twenty persons were res cued. MT and Mrs John McGlone es- caped to the top story of the tenement. McGlone then climbed out of the frontA window and hung on with one hand, while ha held his wife with the other until a life net was secured Then he dropned his wife into the net and fol- lowed himself. Roth were badly burned, as they fell through the flames bursting from the windows below.
 While the firemen were endeayoring to extingnish the flames the upper part of the building. wrecked by the force of the explosion, sagged outward and fell upon the heads of the men. Two streams of water were instantly turned on the wrpcEapp Ont of if in