The bee., 1902-01-30
PILE G DYNAA|IEE CO.
Eight Persons Killed and a Hun
dred Others Injured III
New York City.
LARGE BUILDINGS BADLY DAMAGED.
j. ROdericlS Roberts. of Nelson. II. c.,
Killed In His Room ut Hotel
Lamp Posts Knocked Down and
Many Pedestrians Cut by Flying
GInss.


New York, Jan. 2S.-The reserve
supply of high explosives stored at
the Park Avenue shaft of the Rapid
Transit tunnel, now in course of con-
struction. blew up shortly after noon
yesterday. The giant blast killed
eight persons, injured hundred 9TH
ers and seriously damaged all the
property reached by the flying debris
and the vibration of the shock.
The irregular square formed by
the Murray Hill hotel on the west,
the Manhattan Eye and Ear hospital,
and the Grand Union hotel on thc
east, and the Grand Central station
on the north, was the scene of the
explosion. The buildings named sus
tanned the greatest damage, but the
area affected extended for several
blocks in the four directions from the
center
j. Roderick Robertson. of Nelson,
B. c.. was killed by debris hurled
with the force of artillery into bis
room at the Murray Hill hotel. He
was general manager in Canada for
the British Columbia Gold Fields Co.,
limited, and prominent citizen in
the community where he lived. He
was n ScOtchman and leaves widow
and four children.
The sunken approach 10 the street
railway tunnel used by the Madison
Avenue lines cuts through Park ave-
nue. .and the shaft for the rapid transit
subway was run down beside it at
the intersection OF East FOrty-hrst
street. The street railway approach
was housed over with a supcrstrCc-
ture used for the operating plant of
the rapid transit contractors. Tenn
porary buildings for storage pur-
poses were thrown up against ;he
superstructure at the mouth of the
shaft, and there the explosion oc-
CURED. 1t tore a great gorge in the
street, demolished the temporary
buildings, and part of the superstruc-
ture, and sent mass of earth. splin-
tered 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, nearly every room in the
front of the house was wrecked.
The Manhattan Eye and Ear hos
pital, on the east side of the avenue,
Jared nearly as bad and had to be
abandoned by the management. The
Grand Union hotel lost all of it's win
dows and glass partitions, and prac-
tically every front window in the
Grand Central station was shattered.
The great clocks on it's front tow
ers were blown from their cases.
Thousands of windows, some of them
fell in fragments. 1t was the shower
of broken glass and falling debris
that injured the greatest number.
Fortunately, the explosion oc-
Cured at the noon hour. Not more
that a hundred persons were in the
main waiting room of the Grand Cen
trail station. Some of these were
slightly injured by bits of glass.
Four ticket sellers were cut abous
their heads and arms with the flying
debris.
The station, last night presented
somewhat the appearance of dis
mantled castle, with the big win
dows only ragged holes.
General alarms brought firemen,
police reserves and every available
ambulance to the district. A major
ity of the injured were treated on the
spot, and the white-coated ambulance
surgeons worked for an hour in the
debris-strewn street.
Police lines were thrown across
either end of Park avenue, and across
the intersecting streets.
The cause of the explosion, and the
quantity of explosives that blew Ip
are not definitely known