The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-11-20
Victims in Brooklyn Dis
aster Mangled and
EntOmbed.
ONE MAN DIES AFTER
HE SAVES WOMAN'S LIFE
One Body Recovered, Others Are
Buried Under Tons
of Earth.
GOLD STREET ROARING
GEYSER OF FLAME
Detonetion of Fumes Tears
Roadway Asunder and
Rips Timbers Apart.

NEW YORK, Nov. 20.- Twenty
men, woman and two children
lost their lives as a result of the ex-
piosion of gas main at Gold and
Z Front streets, Brooklyn, today. Prac-
tically the whole street from stoop line
to stoop line between Gold and Front
street was tumbIed fnto a 5O-foot ex-
cavntiOn in which fifteen or more men
were working, and several persons who
were walking along the street are be-
Iieved to have been carried down. 1t
Is believed that every person who went
into the excavation was killed Instant
Iy or smothered or drowned.
Fifty tenement houses on the block
are in such danger of falling into the
trench that the occupants have been
ordered out by the police. The most
intense excitement prevails for blocks
around the scene of the accident and
the streets are filed with wailing women
and children, who have been unable to
get any word from relatives who were
known to be in the vicinity when the
explosion came.
At least one woman and three little
girls are said by the police to have
been swallowed up in the lin which
followed the explosion.
Samuel Trout. who lived near the
scene. lost his life In attempting to save
a woman who was passing through
Gold street at the time of the explosion
and fell into the trench. Trout was
caught by the flames from the blazing
gas main and roasted alive. The woman
was dragged out of the trench and
saved by boy.
The workmen were digging a trench
through Gold street for the installation
of 36-fnch sewer pipe. The excava-
ton was to be nearly forty feet deep,
and as the laborers removed the earth
the walls had been shored up by large
timbers. N
Geysers and Flames.
With Charles Schiffmeyer, a city in
spector of sewers, overseeing the work
this forenoon, the men were working
at the bottom of the trench when an
accumulation of gas from main which
had been accidentally broken during the
course of the work exploded with tre-
lmendous force. The supporting tim
fbers were ripped away and the high dirt
walls toppled over on Schiffmeyer and
his men. A large water main also was
broken by the force of the explosion,
and q perfect torrent of water began to
squirt up through the. mass of wreck
age.
Almost side by side with these geysers
roared the flames from the gas escaping
from the broken main. Firemen and
workmen from the city water depart
ments and the gas company worked
desperately together in an effort to
A@t,n oP nj 20
relieve the men who had been i'm
prisoned.
There seemed little hope, however,
that any of those who had been at work
at the bottom of the trench could have
escaped death. Nearly half an hours
work was required to reach the body Of
Trout, who had been burned to death
on the surface of the street. The bodies
of the other men are believed to be
buried under tons of earth.
Buildings Shaken.
The explosion was followed by scenes
of the most intense excitement. Every
building for blocks around had been
severely shaken, and It was at first
feared that serious damage had been
sustained by some of them.
Among the buildings in the vicinity
which received nearly the full force
of the shock are a large Roman
Catholic church and a parochial school.
In the immense crowd which fiocked to
the scene were the mothers who feared
that their little ones In the school build
ing were In danger.
1t required all the efforts of the police
to keep the crowd back out of danger
and to keep them from interfering with
the firemen and others who were en-
dsavoring TO reach the imprisoned men.