Arizona republican., 1904-04-04
Explosion WreCkS Palace
 and Seip's Cigar Store
ACCUMULATION OF GAS
Many Casualties, Including Fatal In- jury to Jack Buckley-The Question of Responsibility for the Damage Is Under Consideration.

less jar in a radius of half mile.
 It happened in the Palace saloon about o'clock. An accumulation of gas under the floor of the fore part of the saloon was ignited by an inspector of the Phoenix Light & Fuel company, who was hunting for leaking gas and found it in large quantity. The results are the wrecking of the saloon and the cigar factory of Sam N. Seip adjoining. the probably fatal injury of Jack Buckley, the serious injury of Manuel Valdivia, an employe of the cigar fac tory, the injury of James Collins of the Palace, and the slight injury of J. H McElroy, the inspector of the Light & Fuel company, who lost a couple of teeth and received a cut on the jaw, injuries which one of the in terested parties said was hardly enough to fit the crime. Before pro- ceeding any further with the story it should be explained that any strictures upon the inspector are ill placed. There was leaking gas and he was sent out to find it. A defective gas pipe can not be inspected with a safety lamp. There are ways in which the job may be done with comparative safety, but in this case there was hardly a pre- supposition that enough gas had leak ed to cause such a catastrophe as en- sued
 For two or three weeks persons had smelled escaping gas in the front part of the saloon and in the cigar store. It had been looked for in the jets and about the joints above the floor. Night before last the smell in the saloon was unusually strong and at ? o'clock in the morning a telephone message was sent to the company asking that some enc be sent to find the leak.
 There was no one available at the time but shortly before in the morn ing McElroy was sent. He arrived at the saloon and looked over the pipes above the floor and concerning what occurred next there is a variance of testimony; that is. what the inspector did next, but what actually happened was a treme ndous explosion which wrecked the front part of the saloon and converted the cigar factory into a heap of debris. Some of those who were standing about the front of the saloon said that the inspector lighted a candle and ran the flame up ard down the joints of the pipe above the floor Other said that just before the explosion took place he opened a place in the floor and stuck the candle down into it.
 At any rate he received only a slight wound on the jaw and had two teeth jared loose. Jack Buckley, who was just leaving the saloon and stop ped for an instant to see the inspec- ton, was thrown up against the cell ing.
 James Collins was standing outside the inner doors of the saloon and was thrown across the sidewalk fall ing against barber pole.
 Manuel Valdivia was buried under the wreck of the cigar store.
 Buckley was found to have had his right leg broken squarely off just above the ankle. There was a com pound fracture of the same leg above the knee and the bone protruded through the skin There was a frac- ture of the other leg above the knee. His head was also severely injured supposedly by contact with the ceil- ing. He was taken to the Sisters hos pital and during the afternoon reports were circulated of his death.
 MT. Collins also suffered a broken leg. He was carried into Kane's bar Der shop where he received the first surgical attention and after that he was removed to his lodging house.
 Manuel Valdivia was pulled scream ing out of the debris of Seip's cigar store. It was found that he had one leg broken and the other ankle was thrown cut of place. He was also bleeding from the mouth. All these fractured limbs resulted from the up- heaval of the floor. In the cigar store the floor was found on top of every thing else.
 There were several narrow escapes. John the croupier of the roulette wheel at the palace, had just left his post to go to the rear. He had premonitiop that something was going to result from that gas which he had been smelling for days. He thought of it as he left the wheel and instead of pass ing between it and the door, the natur- al way, he went the other way; other wise he would have been involved in the disaster. The wheel was thrown into the air and came down in its proper place, but upside down. The chips and the bank roll were scatter ed all over the front part of the saloon. The office of tEe saloon was wrecked and the front end of the bar was tilted up, but curiously two clocks in that part of the house were not stopped. In some way a fire was started behind the bar, but the fire department, which had been attracted by the noise of the explosion quickly extinguished it. There was a papier mache female statue on a shelf near one of the clocks. That was thrown down and when it was picked up it was found to be in the matter of a effectiveness of arms, a good copy of the Venus de Milo. A metal cupid, a cigar lighter had lost his tin wings. It may be said gener- ally that everything in the front part of the saloon was wrecked and what had not been, had been saved by an apparent miracle.
 The supposition is that the leaking