The Topeka state journal., 1901-06-22
FOURTEEN KILLED.
Paterson, n. j., Has an Early
Fourth of July.
Fireworks Store Blows Up, With
Horrible Results.
WAS FRAME BUILDING
Four Stories High, and Con-
tanned Ten Families.
Shock Broke a Boys Leg Half a
Block Away.
WAS FRAME BUILDING

New York, June 22.-Fourteen persons
are believed to have been killed and a
number injured as the result of a fire
following an explosion, among a guam
tity of fireworks in the store of Abra-
ham Rittenberg at Paterson, N. J. The
store was on the ground floor of ten
ement building. The cause of the ex-
plosion is not known and the property
loss will not exceed $4,000.
The bodies found are:
Mrs. Lucinda AdamsOn-
Mrs. Charles Williams, burned while
trying to rescue husband.
Charles Williams, helpless cripple, un-
able to leave bed
Harold Rittenberg, 10 months, child
of the keeper of the fireworks store.
Willie Elasasser, six weeks old, moth
er kept bakery store.
Mrs. Bert Bamber, whose husband is
in hospital.
Bamber, six months old.
Mrs. Andrew Elvin, head only found,
trunk missing.
Mrs. Ann Burns.
Clarence Burns, six years old, found
elasped in his mothers arms.
Mrs. Annie Lannigan.
Mrs. Mary Duffy
Total number of bodies recovered II.
The missing:
John Elvin. two weeks old, mothers
head found.
Mrs. Anne F'enteman.
Two nephewS of Mrs. Lannigan,
whose body has been found.
Mrs. Mary Elasasser, kept bakery
shop, child's body found.
The building in which the explosion
occurred was a frame tenement, four
stories high with stores on the ground
floor. The middle store was occupied
I@xr 90, I
flats in the building. So great was the
force of the explosion that a boy play
ing in the street half a, block away was
lifted from his feet and hurled against
an iron fence, one of his legs being bro
ken. A trolley car was directly in front
of the building when the explosion oc-
Cured. The burst of flame blown out
into the street scorched the sides of the
car and singed the hair of the passen-
gers
number of those who were on the
upper floor of the building when the ex-
plosion took place were either stunned
and then burned to death or found es-
cape cut off and were suffocated. After
the first explosion there was a success
sion of smaller ones and then came
second big explosion which was muf-
fled and deadened, and proba bly, occurr-
ed to the cellar.
Every window seem ed to be emitting
flames within a minute after the first
explosion. A woman, her clothing on
fire, 1eaped out of one of the windows
and fell to the yard below. Her dead
body was dragged out of reach of the
flames. but the flesh was roasted anG
dropped from the bones. She later
proved to be Mrs. Williams.
Mrs. Williams husband was a
cripple His wife is supposed to have
remained longer than she could with
safety in an effort to save him. He
was found burned to a crisp on his bed
ri fht1 nc171T1o re of ho
dropped from the windows and were
bruised. Others hung from the win
dows until the fremen came and
twenty persons were taken down in
this way through the fire and smoke by
the hrenen while others dropped into
life nets.
Daniel Dooley. who was in the yard
when the explosion took place. saw the
two Rittenberg children in the rear
room, and rushed into the flames for
them He got one of them and carried
it 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 rescuing the first
child.
While the rescues were going on the
hremen were fighting the flames. Cap
tain Allen lei with a. hose line in an
effort to keep the fire from the upper
floors, where it was said many We're
penned in. The men had hardly taken
their positions and begun on the side
walk to throw water into the upper
floors, when without any warning the
whole of the upper part of the building
above them sagged outward 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 occurred was
destroyed.
Rittenberg will probably be arrested.
pending an investigation. In the debris
was found the head of a man or a Wo-
man. The hair is burned off and the
features unrecognizable. The re-
mainder of the body has not been
found. The bodies taken out thus far
are almost unrecognizable. and are
burned and torn by the fire and the
collapse of the tim bers OF the building