Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-20


piosion of Illuminating gas in the aux
| Hilary power house at the Grand Cen
trail station which tore at the heart
and sent tremor along the entire
| rock backbone of Manhattan this
morning, caused the death Of 10 per-
sons, two of them women, the injury
of 125 others and property damage es-
timated tonight at from 81, 00i0 to
SO, 000, 900
Fire broke out in the shattered ruins
OF the power house again late tonight.
but With a great corps of policemen,
searchers and fremen on the scene,
the blaze made little Roadway before
checked. No additional bodies were
found, but in a hospital, Guthier john
ston, an electrician, Succumbcd. bring
ing the death list up to 10.
For workmen, who are missing, are
believed also TO have persisted. OF
tie 1875 injured 80 were removed to
hospitals. of which eight may die.
An investigation by the police, the dis
trics attorneys office and the coroner's
Office is under way.
Traffic on the New York Central
Railroad ceased entirely for some
HOURS anu was NlSOtSdIllIeu Ioi liit
remainder of the day, but the new
station itself, now in process Of con-
struction, was not DANA ged.
The dead:
Nicolo Galucci. laborer; Patrick Jor-
! dan, laborer; T. b. Livermore, Pull
| man car inspector; C. McMarrow. Ia
| borer; Edith Offner stenographer;
| Mary +. Pope; Charles Roberts, eX
| pressman: FRANC Stagg, Waterman:
John RYAN, laborer; Guthier Johnston.
an electrician.
| The injured include laborers and
| other employees Of the railroad, pades-
| TRANS, by-starders and others in the
| vicinity of tie accident passing
surface car carrying seven passengers
| was lifted from its trucks and hurled
! into an automobile running alongside
| Four Of the seven passengers were
| killed outright. !.dt the chauffeur Of
| the motor ear was only cut AND
bruised. OF the nearly 100 in hospitals
| the fo,lnwing are most seriously in
| jured:
Unidentified woman. fractured skull;
| Michael Ryan, fractured skull and inter
| nal injuries: Yetta Abrahamson frac-
4! tured skull and internal injuries; Their
esa LOTHIAN, fractured skull and should
er; John Smith, injuries to the head
| Francis Kelley, Policeman burned and
| bruised: John Cunningham, burned; un-
| identified man, internal injuries.
For some hours it was believed that
| dynamite alone could have wrought
such instantaneous and pulveriZing hav-
| oc, but late in the afternoon, Fire Chief
| Croker said he was convinced that the
| whole explosion was due to mixture OF
air and Illuminating gas, Msed in lighting
| railroad cars, touched off by spark.
| The gas had accumulated in the auNil-
| larry power house from broken pipe
| snapped off by a runaway passenger car.
| The force of the explosion ran north
| and south for two miles along the
| rocky ridge that is the backbone of the
| island and east and west laterally for a
mile. Foundations were Jared, walls
were shaken out of plumb. windows were
| blown in by the thousand, ceilings came
crashing down on the heads Of those be-
! meath and the paven ents We're Uttered
with pulverized glass that topped the
| shoe-SOles
| The full amount Of property damage
is as yet unavailable and may exceed
the rough and conservative estimate
| of 100000. The loss to the New York
| Central Railroad Co. includes the phys
| zeal damage done to the power house,
| which was utterly wrecked; the delay
| to construction work and the damage
done to cars standing near the power
| house. The loss to shopkeepers and
property owners in the vicinity will
4 spread over a wide range Of items.
i Christmas displays were blown backward
into the shops. sucked into the street
or cut to ribbons by flying glass. Whol7
/ fronts of buildings were left without n
| window. like sightless masks.
] AS near as can be determined this is
| how the accident occurred
| A train of empty passenger cars, haul
i ed by an electric motor in charge of AL
! bert Seagreat, got out of control of the
/ brakes, crashed into a steel and concrete
/ buffer post, snapped the post off and
/ rammed pile of lumber behind the post
/ into 2l-inch gas main, connecting with
| the taps from which the tanks of the
/ passenger cars are charged at go pounds
/ TO the square inch.
| BY the testimony of the motorman and
| that of John J. Quinn, a bricklayer work
/ ing on the main power house adjoining
! the auxiliary house, the time Of the
| break in the pipe is approximately at a
1 few moments after o'clock. Two clocks
stopped by the jar place the time of the
| explosion itself at $50. In the interval
the broken main had ample time to pour
| high pressure gas into the lower levels
| of the auxiliary power house. When
| workmen set to clearing away the strew-
ed lumber. it is assumed that one of
| them dropped steel tool across the
third rail- there was a flash of electric
ity and the great reservoir of accumu-
lated gas exploded
| What happened then will never be ade-
4 quately told. The roof of the fire house
| No. g directly across the street from