Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-02-06
Explosion Of Gas in Chicago
Snuffs Out Many
Lives.
STILL DIG In THE RUINS
Fire Adds to the Horror of the Scene.
Bodies of Victims Are So Badly
charred That identification is Al
most Impossible.

Il -
Chicago, Feb. ct is believed that
elevenis the correct number of people
who lost their lives by the explosion of
gas in the Trostel butcher shop last
night. The bodies are charred past
human semblance in majority of
cases and lay at the morgue nearby
today, while the firemen assisted by
laborers, still dug in the ruins on the
bare possibility that more bodies
might be under the debris. Fire Chief
Musham today declared his belief the
explosion was caused by pocket of
gas.
The explosion blew out the fronts of
a dozen structures in Archer avenue at
Twenty-second street. Street cars
were lifted from the rails and whirled
round and round on the pavement gas
mains blew up and sent steel and iron
maHhole covers crashing through
space, flame mounted high at dozen
points and panic reigned for almost an
hour.
Heroic deeds of rescue were per-
formed, deeds that We're forgotten in
the excitement moment later but
which saved from death fully half
hundred women and children. Fire
men and policemen and ambulances
and patrol wagons were hurried to the
scene, and the conveyances were used
to carry away the injured. The dead
lay buried beneath a mass of burning
debris and could not be reached.
Starts in Meatshop.
The first explosion, which was fol-
lowed by four more bursts of fame and
noise along the road in Archer avenue,
occurred in the basement of the meat
shop conducted by Otto Trostel, two
story brick and frame building at 376
Twenty street. Trostefs
nephew, Fred, with two other helpers
in the place. whose names have not
yet been learned, had been working in
the ice box. The proprietor, who had
only a few minutes before returned
from funeral, had attended to the
wants of a customer, a Miss O'Brien.
1t is said that one of the men, probab-
ly Fred Trostel, left his work and went
down into the basement beneath the
front sidewalk to remedy the trouble
that had been experienced all evening
with the gas, there being considerable
frost in the pipes.
Upstairs Mrs Trostel with the help
of her domestic, Sophie Kneipp, was
spreading the supper table for her five
children The clock pointed almost TO
7 o'clock
BuIdino Is Riddled
Suddenly there was a terrific roar
The frame building trembled. then
seemed to fall into a thousand parts
and collapse. The entire front blew
out and went whirling across the ave-
nue., while the roof and the side walls
crumbled and fell in. carrying the
helpless men and women and children
down into the mass of fire and broken
timers.
The flash of fire that accompanied
the detonation and the collapse of the
meat market illuminated the avenue
for half mile in either direction. Sev,
eral persons were passing the building
at the moment and one man was about
to enter the store. They We're caught
up with the flying debris and thrown
into the street, bleeding and bruised
Two street cars, Wallace street We
hicle and one of the Ashland avenue
line, both west-bound and loaded with
passengers, were directly in the patti
of the explosion. The Wallace street
car had halted to take on board little
girl, but the child was blown hun
dred feet down Twenty-second street
The cars were lifted from the tracks
and sent careening over the pavement
windows breaking and the roofs snap
ping and crashing in on the human
freight. Panic reigned in the cars
and several of the passengers were Sc
verely injured.
Second Crash Comes.
The walls of the building to the
east of the butcher shop crashed in or
eight men drinking at the bar of j. w
MacLeod's saloon, driving the bal
against them and pinning them to the
opposite side of the building. Stove.
toppled over and ignited the wood
work threatening them with destruc
ton most terrible.
There was second deafening roar
Then came two more detonations like
the echoes of the first From the cen
:, ter of the street portions of the pave
ment seemed to rise up into the air
to give way for columns of flame tha
shot up The explosion in the mea
shop had sent line Of flame through
the gas mains leading into the street
and the big pipe, buried deep in th
ground was bursting at various point
and finding vent at the conduit open
ings along the thoroughfare. The burn
ing illuminant darted off in various d
deetions, following the supply into sey
eral buildings, there to repeat the e,
plosions and work new damage
In Archer avenue, just around tn
Anrnar frnna Twanty-saennd straa