New-York tribune., 1915-03-14
KILLS
4 BOY CHUMS
WHILE AT PLAY
One Man Dies in Big
Brooklyn Oil Blast
Many Imperilled.
WALL CRASHES ON
LADS IN STREET
Pedestrians Knocked Down
Two Men Hurled from Engine
Factories Shaken.

One man and four boys were killed
yesterday by an explosion Of two tanks,
one containing Casolene and one kero-
scnc, in the pumphouse Of the Crew
& Levick Company, East New York.
The company deals in oils, and It's
distributing station is at Atlantic and
Montauk avenues, East New York.
Buildings in the ncighborhood of the
pumphouse were shaken and windows
shattered. Scores Of people were
slightly injured. Those killed were:
AVERY. GEORGE +. manager o. the plant los
HIGGINS ALEXANDER y. eleven yesu old
Ia Warwick Street Brooklyn.
HIGGINS. ARTHUR. his brother eisht years old
GINAiER HENRY G.. eleven years Old. ls6
Waulck street
zINiNiER. HERBERT. his brother. seven years
Another boy, who was playing mar
bles with the four. had just warned
Mr. Avery that the gasolene tank IN the
pumphouse was leaking. The boy had
been sent to Mr.. Avery's Office by Ed
ward Bell, engineer of Long Island
switching engine, who had seen rivu-
let Of gasolene trickling across the
spur leading into the Montauk Avenue
freight yards.
Warning Came Too Late.
Mr.. Avery started at oace for the
pumphouse, about 100 feet away. His
body was found beneath one Of the
tanks. The tanks held LOO gallons
each.
Mrs. Jessie Herbert, financial secre
tary of the company, and her sister,
Naomi Hankins, whom he left in the
Office, were badly cut and bruised. They
live at 2118 Jamaica Avenue, Richmond
Hill
As Mr.. Avery entered the pumphouse
there was a roar, and for an instant
the two story concrete building was
hidden by smoke. When the smoke
cleared the pumphouse was gone. A
good part of it had toppled into At
lantic Avenue, where it buried the four
bows, who were playing marbles.
Edward Bell and his fireman, Frank
Thompson, were blown out of their To-
comotive cab. Their hair was slnged
and their faces and hands scorched.
The cab Of the locomotive caught the
fury of the blast Of fame that came
with the concussion. Two big tank
cars full of oil, which the engine was
drawing into the yard, escaped un-
scathed.
Flames spurted across the Atlantic
Avenue tracks of the Long Island Rail
road. Before they had withdrawn an
express train shot through at 1ull
speed.
From the factory of the Montauk
Metallic Bedstead Company, near by,
100 employees poured out by way OF
stairs and fire escapes. Both became
congested, and Patrolmen Doherty and
McNallv. of the Liberty Avenue sta
ton, had their hands full trying to
break the jam.
Blast Knocks Down Many.
People on the sidewalks near by
were Knocked fiat by the concussion or
struck by flying fragments of glass,
stone and concrete. Hardly window
in the immediate vicinity escaped.
From all sides came an anxious
z.
friends working in various factories
Police reserves were called to Keep
them in order. Deputy Chief Thomas
Lally took command of the tremen.
Two alarms were sent in. Tanks of the
Standard Oil Company are close by,
and the Crew & Levick Company has
two large subterranean tanks near the
pumphouse. Deluges of water saved
them.
Firemen, policemen and employees of
the Long Island Railroad and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit hacked and
hauled at the debris on the sidewalk
, 60 find the bodies of the four boys.
They were identified in the Liberty
7 Avenue station last night by Mr.. and
Mrs. Alexander T. Higgins, the parents
of two Of them. Mr.. Higgins is an
employe Of the Brooklyn postoffice. In
both families the boys that were killed
were the only children.
They were nearly two miles away
from home, having gone to motion
picture house in the vicinity TO see
films illustrating the dangers of fire
and accident and teaching how to avoid
them. The four boys were pupils IN
the same school and attended the
same Sunday school. They will be
buried together.
The explosion is attributed to an
overflow of the gasolene tank in the
pumphouse or to leaking pipes. In
either case it is thought that embers
from a locomotive ignited the gasolene
fumes. At the time gasolene was being
pumped from the large subterranean
tank to the tank in the pumphouse.
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