Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-06
INSTRUMENTATION
Chicago Building Wrecked and
Many Killed by Explosion
of Sewer Gas.
Man Holes Blown Out by the
Terrific Force OF the
Shock.
Windows Blown Out Of All Near.
by Houses Panic in a
Hospital.

story frame building at 376 Twenty
second street last evening number OF
people, the total said to be eleven. lost
their lives, and the building was blown
into kindling wood. BY S:45 p. M, five
bodies had been recovered from the
ruins. They were all of one family. Not
a member of the family escaped. The
bodies recovered are those of
Otto Trostle. proprietor of the meat
market at 376 Twenty second street.
Mrs. Otto Trostle.
Otto Trostle.
| Otto Trostle, Jr.
4 Minnie Trostle.
/ Annie Trostle.
/ Persons who claim to know assert
that there were at least six more peo-
pie in the Trostle meat market when
the explosion occurred.
Two other explosions of gas followed
so quickly that 1t was hard to distin-
guish them. First to explode was main
at Twenty street and Archer
avenue. Then the manhole half block
south on Archer was thrown into the
air by a loud explosion.
| flames leaped and roared from the
hole. The fire spread below the street
| and smaller manholes were blown into
4 the air.
The flames from the first gas main
shot high into the air and reached,
with the aid of the wind, the Trostle
butcher shop.
The building was three story frame
structure and it had been weakened
end nearly wrecked by the shock. 1t is
supposed that the occupants OF the
building were knocked unconscious or
were too panic-stricken to rush from
| the place. The flames caught the
weather-worn timbers. The dry and
rotting wood was food for the fire. and
| in an instant the flames had enveloped
the structure. With roar the build
| ing collapsed, and the occupants, with
the basement
The adjoining building. two-story
structure, flared up, the next building
was wrapped in flames. and then an
ether structure caught fire.
1t seemed that the whole block would
be wiped out before the firemen could
bring the blaze under control fire
wall of brick building at the corner
of Archer avenue and Twenty second
street held the fire in that direction.
On the west of the, burning buiidings
were two small one-story cottages.
They were few feet from the burn
ing building and that gave the firemen
an opportunity of holding off the fire.
Window glass turnout the neighbour
hod was broken and bottles and glass
ware in the dwellings and stores We're
thrown to the floor and broken.
Many persons in buildings near the
explosions were knocked down. Scores
of men and women, many of them
CARRYING children, rushed to the street,
many of the women screaming with
fear
On several street cars near the place
the windows were smashed and the
passengers severely shaken up.
When people in the cars saw flames
gush from the ground, all hands rushed
for the doors. A number of persons
were bruised and knocked down in the
excited exit. One car was hurled from
the tracks.
Among the dead are supposed to be
three children of the Trostle family,
whose bodies have not yet been recoV-
cred 1t is not known positively that
they were in the house at the time but
a search of the neighborhood has not
shown any trace of them. There were
six children in the family. and there is
little doubt that all the eight members
of the family We're killed.
The three other people who are said
to be dead are supposed to be custo-
mers in the meat market at the time of
the explosion. The direct cause of the
explosion is not yet known, but all in
dications show that it was due to es-
Gaping gas in the basement OF the
Trostle home.
The explosion came without an In
stant's warning. There was dazzling
flash, deafening roar and cloud of
dust and shattered timbers where the
Trostle houses had stood.
on both sides of Archer avenue be-
tween Twenty-second and Twenty
third streets every pane of glass was
blown out and number of the resi-
dents in the damaged buildings suffer-
ed slight injuries from flying glass
Adjoining the Trostle building on the
west, at ol4 lWeHty-seCoHtt otIeSk, was
a two-story frame building, in which
John Mcleod had saloon. 1t van
ished in the same second as the meat
market. 1t was reported that one or
two people were killed here. but the
story could not be, substantiated
In the ruins of the buildings cccu-
pied by Trostle and Mcleod flames
burned so fiercely that even tho the In
mates had not been killed by the first
force of the explosion, they must have
met a quick death by fire. Close TO the
Trostle building stood the Peoples hos
pital, small affair, which had but
few patients. The building was badly
wrecked and every window in 1t blown
out but none of the patients We're in
jured
One of the hospital attendants re-
ceived slight cuts. caused by flying
glass. The patients We're hastily re-
moved to safer quarters In the neigh
borhood by the firemen.
TOE CRUSHED; MAY DIE.