Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-03-21
BIC FACTORY
is IN RUINS.
Explosion of BrOCktOn Destroys
Scores Of Lives Fifty-three
Chaned Bodies.

- - - 49,
che large four story wooden factory ut
r. L. Grover & Co.'S shoe factory in
the CampellO district of this city killed
scores of employees, injured half Il
hundred others and destroyed property
valued at S250,000.
Last night the charred fragments of
ffty-three bodies lay in the morgue,
and ia additional operatives have not
been accounted for. 1t is probable h
the number of dead will never be
known.
OF these missing the police expect
that quite a number will report today.
The death list is estimated al from
fifty to seventy-1fve.
The cause of the explosion was Il
flaw in the ceiling of the boiler, which
could not be detected from the outside,
but which is now visible in the wreck
ed boiler.
The entire Grover factory was re-
duced to ashes within an hour after the
explosion. the three story block across
the street, owned by Charles ii. Dahl
burg. and five dwellings were burned
and several other small structures dam
aged. The search of the ruins was in
progress the entire afternoon and was
continued throughout the night.
While the fire ragged many persons
rushed into the blazing ruins and
pulled out the injured at the imminent
danger of their own lives.
Inn,iS,rn6 nDnpat.Vac tpn far. uNrnN
for rescue and who knew that their
lives would last but a few moments,
spoke words of encouragement to those
who seemed nearer escape. Some pray
ed aloud, others pleaded with the res
cuers to say goodby to relatives, and
o u few shrieked from pam and
fright.
The dreadful spectacle unnerved
many who were trying vainly TO get to
the victims, and some turned away
sick and fainting.
Members of the fire department. with
ladders. aided greatly in the work Of
rescue, but their time for work was
short, for within Il brief interval fire
closed over the wreckage. and the cries
OF the imprisoned were hushed.
In the meantime tho fire WAS spread
ing from the Grover factory. 1t leapei
across Calmar street to Il three story
brick block at the corner of Main
street, owned by Charles +. Dahlburg
and occupied as Il hardware store and
s%torehouse. and then 10 Il two story
wooden lodging house, owned by Viii
liam Lawrence; Il dwelling house on
Calmar street and small buildings, all
of which were destroyed. i-
From the rear of the factory the
flames stretched across Denton street
to the dwelling house of Mrs. Sophia
Peterson and family and to the resi-
dence of Charles O'Brien.
BY this time the entire fire depart
mcnt ana all the police reserves We're
on the scene. but with the high wind
blowing the flames could not he check
ed and soon reached the homes of
Sylvester Rice and John W. Taft. All
these buildings were practically ruined,
but at this point the fire was stopped.
The house to the north of the factory,
through which the exploded boiler
crashed. was owned and occupied by
David w. Rockwell, the engineer in
charge of the boiler and who was
among the killed. The house was de
molished, the roof being ripped of and
two walls torn down. Mrs. Rockwell,
who was sitting by the kitchen stove.
had II miraculous cScape from death,
receiving many cuts from flying bits
of timber when the boiler spceded
through the upper portion of her house.
Crawling through the mass, Mrs. Rock
we'll snatched up her two children, who
We're uniniured, and started for the
home of the nearest neighbor, Mrs.
Eta Hood. She found this cottage
had beer practically rent asundcr by
the boiler, the head of which was
buried in the middle of the structure.
Miss Ella Pratt, Seventy-eight years of
age, a relative of the Hoods, was alone
in the house. The cottage waS thrown
several feet off its foundations, and
Miss Pratt was knocked down and
stunned. but recovered.
The explosion, which was followed
by such Il sacrifice of life and entailed
appalling instances of human suffer
ing, occurred shortly after the opera
tives had settled down TO the work of
the day and without warning. Sud
denly the air yibrated with the roar Of
all explosion. At the same moment
he larger wooden frame of the fac
tory, 4 four story structure, quivercd
and then the rear portion of it col
lapsed. In Il fraction of n second
tiLs section of the great building had
been transformed into a mass Of iron
and wood wreckage, in the midst Of
which human beings were pinioned.
In another moment the fire had broken
ont in the debris and death by FIRE and
Sulfocation became the fate of scores
Of the operatives.
When the boiler exploded it passed
upward almost perpendicularly. tear
ing a passage as it went, killing many
on the way. After rising high in the
air ii descended half the distance and