River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-10-29
A DEADLY BLAST
KILLS TEN MEN
1t Causes Cave-in of the Tunnel in
New York.
LIVES OF MEN CRUSHED OUT
Buried Under Thousands of Tons OF
Failing Rock-Worst of Many
Horrors In Construction
OF subway.

New York, Oct 26.--Ten lives were
lost by the cavein of the roof and walls
of the subway tunnel at One Hundred
and Ninety-fifth street Saturday night
and four persons were badly injured
All of the dead and injured were work
men and most OF them Italians. The
accident was the most disastrous that
has occurred in the construction of the
subway. At the point where the cave
in occurred gang of 90 men were at
work in the tunnel, which is about ITO
feet below the surface. Rufus G. Hunt,
general superintendent of the tunnel
work, said that two converging seams
had appeared in the roof of the tunnel
during the day work on Saturday. The
presence of these seams, however, was
not believed to indicate any more dan
gerous character of the rock than had
previously been encountered, although
it was thought necessary to prop the
roof with a number of upright timber
braces.
Blast Proves Fatal.
The tunnel was being bored by OPEN
ing a perpendicular embrasure in the
face of the bore, and blasting the sides
to the right and left of this embrasure.
Three blasts were arranged by the
drillers, the holes being charged we'll
toward ne roof. The drillers then
withdrew and the three blasts were set
off in rapid succession by electricity,
loosening large quantities of earth and
rock. The drillers say that about ten
mi al IN oil ha 10
clear away before Timothy Sullivan,
the foreman, and Electrician Schuette
advanced, the latter intending to string
wires and hang electric lamps to light
the way. They were followed by 16
worlImen. The vanguard of the gang
had reached the broken stone when a
rumbling sound was heard 1t grew IN
volume with lightning-like rapidity.
Those in the rear had just time to turn
about and run when hundreds of tons
of rock fell on the men at the face Of
the boring. The drillers and two or
three Italians who were out of
reach of the deluge of rock, were
knocked fiat on their faces by the rush
Of wind driven through the tunnel.
When the roar had ceased the cries
of injured workmen echoed through
the tunnel. Two negroes, in charge of
tram car which they were pushing
along the track to be loaded with the
blasted rock, rushed to the opening at
Two Hundredth street and to the
speedway livery stables, block away.
and there telephoned an alarm to po-
lice Headquarters. Reserves were inn
mediately ordered to the scene, while
ambulances were sent from several
hospitals. A policeman and two am
bulance surgeons we're the first to en-
ter the tunnel after the accident They
ran along the track, which was still
lighted by incandescent lamps, until
they reached the great pile of boulders
and crushed rock. The first victim
found, an italian laborer, was pinioned
on shelf of the excavation by one leg,
a bowlder of about ten tons in weight
having fallen on the limb. He was
hanging head down, grooming in semi
consciousness. The rock which held
him was restrained from falling fur
Their by small piece of stone inse-
curely wedged under it, An examina-
ton showed that an effort to move the
bowlder would cause the Italian to be
completely crushed. The doctors then
determined to amputate the pinioned
leg, and this was done in the light of
the ambulance lamp. The man, who
was not identified, died later at a hos
pital.