Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1908-11-21
EXPLOSION ENCULFS TWENTY
Gas Main in Brooklyn Ex- des,
Wrecking Street. y
PEDESTRIANS ca DOWN
Victims smor = - Burned 60
Death In Fly " sing-Broken
water NJ, spouts Like
Geyser.
DOWN

NEW YORK Nov 90.-More than twenty
persons are believed to have lost their lives
as a result OF the explosion OF a gas main
at Gold and Front streets, Brooklyn. today
Practically the whole street from Stooplne,
between Gold and Front streets was
tumbled into a fifty foot excavation In
which fifteen or more men were working
and several persons who were walking
along the street are believed to have been
carried down.
1t is believed that every person who went
into the excavation was killed instantly
or some others were drowned Fifty tene-
ment houses on the block are in such dan
ger Of falling into the trench that the
occupants have been ordered out by the
police The most intense excitement pre-
walls for blocks around the scene of the
accident and the streets are filled with
walling women and children who have been
unable TO get any word from relatives
who were known to be in the vicinity when
the explosion occurred.
At least one woman and three little girls
are said by the police to have been swal-
lowed up I'm the cave-n which followed
the explosion. Four of the men who were
buried I'm the cavern are reported to have
escaped by crawling through a sewer which
opens into the East river.
street Torn Up for Rods.
The explosion tore the street to pieces
for rods on either side, and the twelve
men who were working in an excavation
for big sewer pipe were buried by the
debris which fell in upon them and are
believed to have been, smothered or burned
to death in the fire that followed the ex-
ploson. 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 maid
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
a thirty-six-inch sewer pipe. The excava-
tion was to be nearly forty feet deep. and
as the laborers removed the earth the
walls had been shored up by large tim
bers with Charles Schiffmeyer, a city
inspector Of sewers. overseeing the work.
the men were working in the bottom Of the
trench when an accumulation of gas from
a main which had been accidentally broken
during the course of the work, exploded
with tremendous force.
Water Main Bursts.
The supporting timbers were ripped away
and the high dirt walls toppled over on
schiffmeyer and his men. A large water
main also wss broken by the force OF the
explosion and perfect torrent OF water
began to squirt up through the mass of
wreckage. 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
and the gas company worked
desperately together in an effort to check
the flow of gas and water and to relieve
the men who had been imprisoned. There
seemed little hope, however, that any Of
those who had been at work at the bottom
OF tho trench could have escaped death.
Their bodies are believed TO be buried
under tons of earth.
The explosion was followed by scenes OF
intense excitement Every building for
blocks around had been severely shaken.
A large Roman Catholic church and n
parochlal school received nearly the full
force OF the shock. In the immense crowd
which flocked TO the scene were mothers
who feared that their little ones in the
school building were In danger.