The Yale expositor., 1905-03-24
Boiler In Shoe Factory at Brockton
Mass, Blew Up.
RUINS IMMEDIATELY BURNED
Many Who Might Have Been Saved
Roasted AIive---Exact Number Who
Persisted Not KnoWn-Victims' Bod
les Badly Disfigured.

Broclton, Mass March 81, a. NJ
At this hour the remains Of fifty-three
persons have been recovered from the
ruins of the Grover & Co. factory
Seven bodies have been identified but
only three or four positively. Fifty
three persons are known to be still
missing.
Brockton, Mass, March 21.-This
city is in mourning today for at least
three score of her citizens, whose lives
were blotted out early Monday by the
explosion of q boiler in a large shoe
manufacturing establishment in the
Campello district conducted by the Il.
b. Grover Company.
The explosion was Immediately fell
lowed by a flash Of fame, which con-
sumed the factory, a long four-stCry
structure, as if it were house Of
cards and incinerated a number Of
men and women who were unable to
extricate themselves frem mass OF
tangled wreckage formed by the ter
rife upheavals in the boiler room.
Leaped From Windows.
More than half a hundred of the.
employees in the building were
manned, burned or bruised by the time
they reached safe ground. Some had
jumped from the roof, some from win
dows and others had been injured in
the mad rush to escape from the
doomed factory, which from all parts
emitted the intense, awful heat of an
inferno, driving back the band of he
roic rescuers who in a few brief mo-
ments had performed gallant service.
The fire extended from the factory
to several other buildings in the vi
cinity and destroyed them. The total
financial loss is estimated at quar-
ter of a million dollars, 100000 Of
which falls on the r. b. Grover Com
pany. The monetary losses are near
ly Offset by insurance.
1t may never be known Just how
many persons persisted in the wreck
age. No one knows exactly how many
persons were in the factory. The
number has been estimated at 400.
Few Bodies Identified.
Two hundred and fifty survivors
have been accounted for and the re-
mains of fifty bodies have been recov-
cred from the ruins. Few Of the re-
mains have been identified. The head
in nearly every case is missing, and
except in rare instances it was impos-
sible even to distinguish the sex.
The explosion, which was followed
by such sacrifice of life and entailed
appalling instances of human suffer-
ing, occurred shortly after the oper-
atives had settled down to work for
the day and without warning. Sudden
ly the air vibrated with the roar of an
explosion. At the same moment the
larger wooden frame OF the factory, a
four-story structure, quivered and
then the rear portion OF 1t collapsed.
In fraction of a second this section
of the great building had been trans
formed into mass of iron and wood
wreckage, in the midst of which hui
man beings were pinioned. In an
other moment fire had broken out in
the debris and death by fire and suf-
location became the fate of scores OF
the operatives.
Fire Escapes Destroyed.
In the sections of the factory which
remained standing the operatives were
panic-stricken as they sought escape.
Many fed down the stairways and
reached the street, others ran to the
windows, the fire escapes in many
cases having been torn away by the
explosion. In desperation many
jumped from the second and third
story windows to the ground and were
dangerously injured. The crush on
the stairways resulted in numerous
minor injuries.
Instant death was the fate of many
who went down with the floors that
collapsed. A large number of men
and women who were working near
the supports were alive after the
floors and walls fell From these un.
fortunates thrilling cries of agony
and terror went up. A few persons
succeeded in extricating themselves
from the wreckage, but more were
roasted to death.
OF those missing the police expect
that quite a number will report later.
The death list is estimated at from
fifty to seventy-fve.
The entire Grover factory was re-
duced to ashes within an hour after