The semi-weekly messenger., 1902-01-31
A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION
W0RKS HAVOC TO LIFE AND PROPERTY
IN NEW YORK CITY.
EQUAL TO ARTILLERY DISCHARGE
Reserve Magazine of Explosives OF
Rapid Transit Works blown up-Six
Men Killed and n Hundred Wound
ed-Murray Hill Hotel Partially
Wrecked-Grand Union Hotel and
Grand Central Depot Badly DAM
aged-Glass Shattered I'm Buildings
Seven Blocks Away.

New York. January 27.-The reserve
supply Of high explosives stored at the
Park avenue shaft of the Rapid Tran
sit tunnel now in course of construction
blew up shortly after noon today. The
giant blast killed six persons, injur-
ed 100 others and seriously damaged all
the property reached by the flying de-
bris and the vibration of the shock.
The irregular square formed by the
Murray Hill hotel on the west. the Man
haitian eye and ear hospital and the
Grand Union hotel on the east and the
Grand Central railroad station on the
north was the scene of the explosion
The buildings named sustained the
greatest damage. but the area affected
extends for several blocks in the four
directions from the center.
Man Killed in Hotel Room.
]. Roderick Robertson, of Nelson. b.
c.. was killed by debris hurled with the
force of artillery into his room at the
Murray Hill hotel. He was general
manager in Canada for the British CO.
lumbia Gold Fields Company, limited,
and a prominent citizen in the commu-
nifty where he lived. He was a Scotch
man and left a widow and four chilcren
He was said to have been quite wealthy
The sunken appoach to the street rail-
way tunnel used by the Madison Ave-
nue. line cuts through Park avenue and
the shaft for Rapid Transit subway
was run down beside it at the intersec-
ton of east Forty-first street. The
street railway approach was housed
over with superstructure used for the
operating plant of the Rapid Transit
contractors. Temporary buildings for
storage purposes were thrown up
against the superstructure at the mouth
of the shaft and there the explosion oc-
Cured. 1t tore a great gorge in the
street. demolishing the temporary
buildings and part of the superstruc-
ture. and sent mass of earth. splinter
ed timber and twisted iron high in the
air. Much of it went battering against
the front of the Murray Hill hotel. and
although the walls and main structure
of that building stood the shock, near
ly every room in the front of the house
was wrecked.
Damage to Nearby Buildings.
The Mahattan eye and ear hospital
on the east side Of the avenue Jared
nearly as badly and had to be abandon
ed by the management.
The Grand Union hotel lost all of it's
windows and glass partitions.
Practically every front window in the
Grand Central station was shattered.
The great clocks on it's front towers
were blown from their cases. Thou
sands of windows some of them seven
blocks from the tunnel shaft, fell in
fragments. It was the shower of brok-
en- glass and falling debris that injured
the grea test number,
General alarms brought firemen, po-
lice reserves and every available ambu-
lance to the district and the injured
were speedily cared for A majority of
the injured were treated on the spot
and the white coated ambulance sur
geons worked for an hour in the debis-
strewn streets. Police lines were
thrown across either end of Park ave-
nue. and across the interSecting streets.
Several times the police cleared the
street of people in front of the Murray
Hill hotel.
Water Mains Broken and Tunnel
Flooded.
Torrents of water from broken mains
poured into the tunnel shaft while the
wreckage was being cleared from the
street railway subway and it was fear
ed that the street might cave In.
Surmises as to the Cause.
The cause of the explosion and the
quantity of explosives that blew up are
not definitely known. Several causes
have been advanced. One was that a
fire started near the powder room and
that master mechanic William Tubbs
lost his life in a desperate attempt to
uuench it before it reached the deadly
fuel. Another was that it started from
a spark produced by stray current of
electricity. A third placed the blame
upon blast in the tunnel. Still anoth-
er gave a gas explosion from electrical
contact in the trolley conduit of the
street railway subway. 1t will proba-
bly, take an official investigation to re-
veal the true explanation.
Several men who were very close to
the shaft escaped while others hundreds
OF feet away were k0cked down and
seriously injured.
District Attorney Jerome visited the
scene and made an investigation to
guide him in the official inquiry and
possible criminal prosecution that will
follow.
Ira A. Shaler. engineer in charge of
the work at Park avenue: John Brack-
en-. a foreman and Martin McGrath.
an assistant foreman. were placed
under arrest and charged with
homicide. William Barclay Par
sons. chief engineer of the Rapid
Transit commission said that Shaler
was one of the most competent and
careful engineers he ever knew.
Damage Probably Over 81 I,OOO.OOO.
The damage may exceed $1.000.000.
The first estimate on the Murray Hill
hotel. placed the loss at 100000, but,
later, the hotel was abandoned as un-
safe. If the building Is condemned the
loss on it alone will approach $1,000 600.
The damage to the Grand Union was
estimated at $4,000 and that to the
Manhattan hospital at SIS 900. The loss
at the Grand Central station was en-
tirely in glass as was that Of the one
hundred or more other buildings Affect
ed by the explosion. No estimate was
made of the losses sustained by the
Rapid Transit contractors.
Free Fight Among Omcials.
There were a clash In court this after
noon between District Attorney Jerome
and Coroner Goldenkranz. Mr.. Jerome
was In his office examining Shaler,
Bracken and McGrath. the men under
arrest when a policeman entered and,