The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-07
AGAIN A SEWER BOMBARDMENT
GASOLINE FROM GARAGES NOW
SAID TO CAUSE BLOWUPS.
Several People Hurt in Fourth OF Series
-Manhole Covers Shot Into the Air and
Glass Smashed Along Ninth Ave. in
Lower F1fties- RI sidents in Panic.

Lower Ftfties- RI sidents in Panic.
It is getting to be a pretty hard thing to
keep the lid down in the district along Ninth
avenue between Fo~rty-ninth and Fifty
fifth streets. The sewer manhole covers
in that region blew up again yesterday
afternoon, just two weeks from the day
and hour that they blew up the last time.
Yesterdays explosion was the fourth.
When the explosion occurred two weeks
ago, injuring several persons and doing
much damage to property, the authorities
thought that it must have been caused by
Illuminating gas getting into the sewers.
They think now that the garages are to
blame for it. Gasolene and naphtha from
places along Broadway, they say, are al
lowed to drain into the sewers and cause
the mischief. There is going to be an in
vestigation to determine this at once.
The explosion yesterday came a little after
4 o'clock. There was first a low rumble,
which lifted most Of the manhole covers.
Ten-year-old Jimmy Lane happened to be
playing marbles on a cover at Tenth avenue
snd Fifty-first street When this happened.
The cover was lifted with Jimmy on it and 1t
threw him and his marbles into the gutter.
This incident caused a crowd Of 500 people
to collect and attracted several policemen.
They were trying to fix up Jimmy when there
was a loud explosion followed by a sue
cession Of reports like the discharge Of a
battery. Covers flew up in the air in all
dire~ctions-some Of them as high as thirty
feet, and from the holes there came bursts
of fame. Houses were shaken as IL by ar
earthquake, Whole panes Of plate glass
in store windows and houses crashed to the
sidewalk. People ran panicstricken in all
directions.
Immediately after the explosion the
streets and houses were filed with a queer
smell. 1t was the familiar sewe gas smell,
only with it was mixed a smell like that Of
gaso!ene.
James Reilly. an employee Of the Con-
solidated Gas Company, was at Ninth
avenue and Fifty-frst street when the
second explosion occurred. He was one of
a gang which the gas company has had
going around ever since the last explosion
trying to find if gas was getting into the
sewers Reilly was just about to go down
a manhole when the burst OF flame came
from it and he was thrown twenty feet
away. He was covered with bruises and
HIS IlRnJ IT'LL Was DIohtl' III was tdhcI
In an ambulance to Roosevelt Hospital.
Every manhole along Ninth avenue from
Forty-ninth street to Fifty-ffth street was
sent into the air. Those on Fifty-fifth street
from Ninth to Eighth avenue were also
cent skyward. But the full force of the
explosion seemed to be. in Fifty-frst street
from Eighth avenue to the river, along the
route of the four foot brick sewer to which
the others are tributary.
Fifty-frst street west Of Ninth avenue
was crowded with children when the covers
blew up and the manholes shot forth flames.
There was a panic Of serious proportions.
Children skrieking with terror ran through
the street. Out from the houses whose
windows had been broken rushed the
mothers. They grabbed their own children
and all the other children they could get
their hands on, ran through the houses
with them and out into the back yards,
some even lifting the children over the
fences so as to get to the next street.
The heavy manhole covers fell into the
street in fra In front Of 422 West
Fifty-frst street the whole pavement
around the manhole was torn up. A group
Of children were playing in the gutter.
They were thrown into the trent yard of a
house.
Two stained glass windows in the Church
of the Sacred Heart were smashed, as were
two windows in the rectory next door. There
was not a house on the block without a
broken window in it. The police collected
nearly a hundred hats after it was over.
They were claimed mostly by children.
Along Ninth avenue the damage was almost
n q Grant Nav Shannon n 1Q-Vap r-OlH rirl
living at AZ Ninth avenue, was knocked
down by the explosion at Fiftieth street
and Ninth avenue. She dragged herself
She was found there by rescuers and sent
to Roosevelt Hospital. She was suffering
principally from fright.
John Ewald, who happened to be near a
manhole cover at Ninth avenue and Fifty
first street, had his clothes torn into tatters.
At Fifty-fourth street the slot Of the surface
car track was damaged, causing a blockade
of the cars on the %northbound track, lasting
Tor twenty minutes.
Capt. Zimmerman Of the West Forty
seventh street station house turned out
his reserves and Inspector Walsh sent
for reserves from four precincts. The
police also sent for a %wagonload of bar
rels, which they put in the manholes whose
covers were broken.
A lot Of people were hurt from being
cut by glass. Michael Ryan of 5o7 West
Fifty-fourth street had his scalp cut open
and had to be taken to the hospital. Others
who were treated by surgeons were Nathan
Berg Of 44e West Fifty-third street and
William Slattery, AIS West Fifty-ninth
street, both cut on the head.
Not only were the streets filled with glass,
but after the explosion the air seemed to
be filled with %pulverized glass, and many
people complained Of their eyes being hurt
by the glass dust.
Horace LOOMS, chief engineer Of the
bureau of sewers, said last night hat the
department had about made up its mind
that the garages were responsible.
e yer since the last explosion" said
Engineer Loomis, 'the Consolidated Gas
Company has had men working on the
sewers trying to find out if the trouble was
caused by leakage OF illuminating gas.
The superintendent recently reported to
the bureau that on the occasion Of the last
explosion there was a distinct smell of
naphtha and gasolene. We are already