Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-06
FIRE COVERED ACRES
Damage Amounting to $780,
600 Done in Lynn.
NO LOSS OF LIFE RESULTED
Big Harvey Shoe Factory Entirely De-
stroyed.
NO LOSS OF LIFE RESULTED
CAUSED BY BOILER EXPLOSION
Fortunately the Operatives Had Not
Assembled for Their Days Work
Six Firms Homeless.

LYNN, Mass, December 6.-The explosion
! of boiler today in the four-story factory
| building of the P. j. Harvey Shoe Manufac-
| turing Company Alley street, and the
fire which Immediately followed destroyed
fourteen buildings In the West Lynn manu-
featuring district, causing a total loss esti-
mated at about $4,000. Eleven persons
were injured, one, Miss Celia Tradenburg.
an operative in one of the burned factories,
being in critical condition at a hospital.
In addition to the direct loss the shoe manu-
facturers will suffer severely from the in
terruption to their Christmas business.
OF the injured six are at the hospital.
None will die it is believed.
The boilers of the P. ]. Harvey Shoe
Manufacturing Company of this city blew
up this morning and at least twelve people
are reported injured.
Shattered Big Factory.
The explosion, besides shattering the big
four-story factory of the Harvey Company,
wrecked several buildings nearby In the
crowded manufacturing district. heavy
| southeast gale was blowing, driving the
flames with incredible rapidity until within
brief space the flames were far beyond
the control of the local fire department and
help was called from Boston. In an hours
time two acres in the West Lynn district
had been burned over, running the premises
of more than half a dozen large business
firms, mostly shoe manufacturers, destroy
ing twelve dwellings on Charles street.
The explosion occurred just before Z
O clock as the factory operatives were as
sembling for their days work.
The devastated district ia in West Lynn.
street
Doctors and ambulances were hurried to
the scene from all parts of the city, but
with so wide a territory so suddenly
stricken the work of aiding and collecting
the wounded and hunting for possible dead
was necessarily hampered.
The first firms to be burned out or
wrecked by the explosion were:
P. ]. Harvey Shoe Company.
Tufts and Friedman Shoe Company.
n.
Boston and Maine West Lynn railroad
station.
Jacobs Leather Stock Company.
NJ. ]. Worthley Shoe Company.
Twelve dwellings.
Flames Spread Rapidly.
The force of the explosion burst the four
machinery-loaded floors of the Harvey fac
tory and lifted the roof. The wreckage
spread outward, shattering the walls of
nearby structures and aiding the spread OF
the flames, despite the heavy storm of snow
and sleet that started early in the day. In
a brief space of time the West Lynn sta
ton of the Boston and Maine railroad was
on fire. Unchecked by the wide gap oc-
cupied by the railroad tracks, the flames
reached structures on the other sde lick
ing up first the leather stock factory of
the Jacobs Company and then sweeping
through the district covered by small
wooden tenements.
AT o'clock the police reported that ap-
parently no persons had been killed. They
had taken to the hospital up to that time
nine injured. Three Of those were but
slightly hurt, and a hasty examination
seemed to indicate that the other six were
not fatally hurt. By o'clock the police
district in the vicinity Of Alley and West
streets The financial loss will be about
$45O.OO0.