The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-14
A SLEEPING GAR ARIRB.
UNUSUAL ACCIDENT AT UNION
 STATION THIS MORNING.
Gas Explosion Causes a PanIc-oecu pants Narrowly Escape fin Their Night CIothes-Women and Men Compelled to sit About in scant Attlre-An Their clothes Burned;-Moneya and VaIunbtes Lost.


 clothes sBurned-Moneya and vaIuabtes Lost.
 A sleeping car full of passengers caught on fire at the depot this morn ing about 1 o'clock and caused great excitement. The car which was burned was next to the rear end of the train which is the Il o'clock out of New York for Boston. It arrived here at o'clock and was scheduled to leave this city for Worcester and Boston at 1:10 o'clock. As soon as the train ar rived sleeping car No. 2OS2, which was the one which caught on fire, was con- nected with the pipe which supplies the cars with gas. It was connected with the rear end of the car and the gas supply was turned on. A moment after a slight explosion was heard and the interior of the car was in flames. Patrolnan Dippold sent word of the fire to Sergeant Crocker and he sent a still alarm to No. Is house. In the meanwhile the twenty sleeping passen- gers had some difficulty in getting out. The car quickly filled with smoke and a rush was made for the front door. The passengers could not see on &C., count of the smoke and one lady was knocked down. She was quickly got out and she then claimed that her back and right arm was hurt, but not seriously. s,s
 One old gentleman who was in his berth had q narrow escape from suffo- cation, as he was right close to where the fire started. He was helped into the air and in short while seemed to be all right. The passengers had no time whatever to collect any of their things and escaped scantily clad into the station. They then stated that they had left a lot of vaIuables in the car. By this time the fire department had arriv- ed and chemicals and stream of water was turned into the car. " w Every window was broken to let the smoke out. and it did not take long to extinglish the flames The firerrlen then commenced a hunt for the missing vaiu- ables, a large amount of which they re- covered. ~-s.-
 B. D. Kaplan of 227 East 6Sth street, New York. who escaped with hardly any clothing on and who was black from the smoke, claimed that he had about ESQ., 000sin money and securities in the car. A hunt was made and a wallet was found. It was wet but 1t contained four orders for s5.o00 each and other securi- ties belonging to MT. Kaplan. " MT. Kaplan stated that he had recov- cred all his valuables except some mon- ey which had been burned up with his clothes. He could not tell exactly how much. :s~:
 F. B. Clark, of New York city, an- other passenger, said that he had lost, besides his clothes, about $25o in money. $. c. Beals, of the firm of King & Beals, of S95 Broadway, New York city, and whose home is in Astoria, N. r., was on the train and was accompanied by Herbert Langford, of Plainfield, N. J., one of his employees They both claim to have sustained some loss, exactly how much they could not state.
 A. Freschl, of Chicago, said that he had lost about $100 in money and watch and pin. He also said he had lost a business memorandum for which he would not have taken $1o00.
 / Nearly all the other passengers claim ed to have lost more or less, although it is thought that when a thorough search of the car is made most of the stuff, except the clothes, will be found. The handbags of most of the passen- gers were soaked. but their contents seemed to be all right.
 The passengers escaped to the depot with very scant clothing on, and some were only in their night garments. The railroad officials, as quickly as they could, did all they could to make them comfortable, providing some of the men with overalls and shoes.
 It is thought that in some way the connection of the hose broke and that the, escaping gas ignited from the brakeman's lantern. Some of the pas- sengers left on other early morning trains and others went to hotels.