The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-22
EXPLOSION KILLS 10
And INJURIES LIS
GAS EXPLOSION IN GRAND CEN
TRIAL STATION, NEW YORK
CITY, SPREADS RUIN.
LOSS WAS OVER 100000
Motor Car Struck Illuminating Gas
Pipe Line and Caused
Explosion.

New York.--A terrific explosion OF
Illuminating gas in the auxiliary pow
er house at the Grand Central station
which tore at the heart and sent a.
tremor along the entire rock back
bone Of Manhattan caused the death
Of ten persons, two of them women,
the injury Of 125 Others, some Of the
latter fatally, and property damage
estimated at from $2,00O,000 to 49,
900 900.
Four persons are missing and are
believed to be dead.
Fire broke out in the shattered ruins
OF the power house, but with a great
corps Of police, searchers and firemen
on the scene, the blaze made little
Roadway before being checked
Al canvass of the neighborhood
showed that few structures nad es-
capped Windows were smashed liter
ally by the thousands. Handsome res
idence fronts were decorated with
blankets, sheets, newspapers, burlap
or old rugs as the quickest substitutes
for window glass. Several institutions
in the neighborhood have appealed for
aid to affect repairs, and order will
not be restored for weeks.
The Tiffany studios at Forty-fourth
street and Madison avenue, fully half
mile from the scene of the catas-
trophe, suffered. Valuable stained
glass windows. valued at $4,000, were
smashed.
For some hours it was believed that
dynamite alone could have wrought
such instantaneous and pulverizing
havoc, but Fire Chief Croker said he
was convinced that the whole explo-
sion was due to a mixture of air and
Illuminating gas, used in lighting rail
road cars, touched off by an electric
spark. The gas had accumulated in
the auxiliary power house from a
broken pipe snapped off by a runaway
passenger car
The force of the explosion ran north
and south for two miles along the
rock ridge that is the backbone of the
island, and east and west literally for
mile. Foundations were Jared, walls
were shaken out OF plumb, windows
were blown in by the thousand, cell
ings came crashing down on the heads
of those underneath, and the pave
ments were Uttered with q mass of
pulverized glass.
AS nearly as can be determined this
is how the accident occurred: A train
load Of empty passenger cars, hauled
by an electric motor, in charge Of
Albert Seagroatt, got out of control
OF the brakes, crashed into steel and
concrete buffer post, snapped the post
off and rammed pile of lumber be-
hind the post into 2 1-2-inch gas
main, connecting with the taps from
which the tanks of the passenger cars
are charged at $50 pounds to the
square inch.
When workmen set to clearing away
the strewed lumber, 1t is assumed that
one OF them dropped a steel tool
across the third rail, there was flash
OF electricity and the great reservoir
of accumulated gas exploded. What
happened then will never be adequate.
ly told. The roof of fire house No 2,
directly across the street from the
power house, lifted like a magic car
pet, A shower of glass, bricks, mortar
and splintered timbers began to rain
down on the pavements, In an instant
the streets were filed with PROSTATE
men and women, blown fiat by the
shock of the detonation and the rush
of air,