The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-05-16
NATURAL GAS
May EXPLODE
RAILROAD COMPANY KEEPING
BACK THE CURIOUS.
PIPE line UNDER THE FIRE
Wreckage Saturated With Naptha
and Coal Oil Still Burning in
Pan Handle Yards.

Pittsburg, Pa, May 13.-The Of
ficials of the Pan Handle railroad fear
a worse explosion than the three
which wrought so much damage yes
terday.
A danger line has been made 500
yards on all sides of the burning
wreckage and the railroad police are
keeping the crowd back.
A few feet below the burning wreck
age lies the big 36-inch main of the
Philadelphia company, which comes
from the gas fields in the southwest
ern portion of the state, and which
supplies the McKees Rocks and Low
er Allegheny districts with natural
gas.
1t is feared that the conclusion was
so great that ONE of the joints or
even the pipe itself might have been
damaged, and if such is the case, the
gas which is under great pressure
will soon force it's way through and
another errific explosion will follow.
About 20 cars are piled up between
the Sharaden station and Cork's run
in the Sharaden yards.
This is still a mass of flame. In
this there are all kinds of merchan-
disc. )
Little Roadway is being made to
e%xtinguish the fire, owing to the fact
that the entire wreckage is saturated
with naphtha and kerosene and every
now and then a fresh volume of flame
shoots out from the s%mouldering
ruins.
Twenty-one dead and not less than
300 wounded are reported as the re-
suit of the terrible catastrophe at
Sharaden last night. OF the 800 in
jured physicians say at least so will
die.
Many Not Reported.
Many of the dead have not been re-
ported to the coroner and an accurate
list cannot be obtained at this time.
The long list is a series of foul &C.
cidents eliminating in one of the
most frightful disasters in the history
of Greater Pittsburg.
The ~telescoping of naphtha cars in
the yards of the Pan Handle railroad
yards in Corks Run was followed by
the ignition of the naphtha by an open
switch lamp and by the flowing of
naphtha, first free, then ignited
through the culvert leading to the
Ohio river, half a mile away, and it's
explosion with attendant damage to
life and property.
Will Investigate.
The telescoplng OF cars was one of
those things that not infrequently hap
pens without serious consequences.
Its subsequent ignition by an open
switch light will be fully investigated.
The cause Of the explosion at the
point where it once again broke out
into the open is still a matter of con-
lecture.
1t might be that the flame followed
the naphtha that had gone before
and resented the cramped quarters of
the culvert's opening, sending up a
sheet of naphtha and flames than
wrecked half a dozen houses in the
neighborhood, setting them on fire, in
juring not less than a hundred people
in%cidently.
The shock of the shot from this Gull
vert was felt across the river in Allie
gheny, where windows were broken.
The burning of the naphtha at the
fountain head, the two naphtha tanks
was spectacular in the extreme. 1t
was a giant fire. People came
from far and near to view the sight.
The Second Explosion.
Fully two hours after the fire start
ed came the second explosion. There
were three other naphtha tanks in
the immediate neighborhood of the
two tanks that had been telescoped
and were burning. Efforts to get
them out of range had, for some rea-
son been Intellectual.
With a mighty splash of flame
across the heavens and a noise that
made the hills quake, the tanks let
go almost at the same moment.
From the heavens there descended
streams of burning naphtha, flaming
timber and red hot iron on the people
on the hill tops. Maddened by pain,
the injured dachad hithor ond 4hi4hon