The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1915-01-15
SCORES OF, PERSONS IN HOS
PITFALLS AND ONE WOMAN is
DEAD AS RESULT OF
EXPLOSION.
RUMORS OF TERRIBLE
CATASTROPHE SPREAD
Underground Service Likely to Be
Tied Up for Several Days as Re
suit Of Accfdent-This Would
Cause Congestion Without
Parallel In History Of City.

dead, IL other persons are in seri
GUS condition and 700 are sufferin,
from after-effects of shock and smoke
transportation accident in New York;
history.
Thousands of persons were SO I'm
nerved by fright that they required
medical attention.
/ A blowout tied up the entire sub
way system from the upper Bronx tt
Brooklyn.
Between Fourteenth street an6
| Ninety-sixth street all stalled trains
were shrouded in darkness. One hour
| and forty minutes later fire broke out
| in the block between Fiftieth and
| Fifty-ninth streets.
Directly under Fifty-fifth street a
northbound express train and south
bound local were stalled. Both we're
damned with passengers. 1t was these
who suffered most.
Many Rendered Unconscious.
Trapped in the darkness, with the
tunnel filling with the choking smoke
from burning insulation rubber, many
were rendered unconscious.
Others, utterly panic-stricken, tore
loose from the clutches of the more
cool-headed who would restrain them,
and attempted to find their way
through the dark, smoke-filled tunnel
to an exit.
Some fell by the way unconscious.
Others fought their companions in
frenzied panic.
That there were not more than 100
actually killed was due to the speedy
arrival of the firemen, who tore open
manholes and ventilator gratings, low
cred ladders and brought down lights
SO that the victims could see.
For nearly two hours, Chief Kenlon
and his men worked in relays, getting
the passengers to safety. Hardly one
was brought out conscious.
All AmbuIances Busy.
All of the ambulances of the city
and all Of the pulmotors available
were rushed to the scene.
The streets in the vicinity resembl-
ed a battlefield. Unconscious forms
were stretched out everywhere and up
and down the line the doctors hurried,
administering first aid.
Some were able to go home. Others
were made comfortable in theaters,
garages and private houses.
Yet, as an evidence of the magni-
tude Of the disaster, the hospitals con-
tanned emergency patients, as follows:
Polytechnic hospital, IS patients, of
whom six were in serious condition.
Bellevue hospital, five women and
three men, of whom two women were
in serious condition.
Roosevelt hospital, rs, of whome five
were in serious condition.
West Side Y. M. c. A., 10.
One Woman Dies.
The one death was woman, not yet
identified, who died shortly after being |
taken to the Polytechnic hospital.
The situation around the Fifty-hinth |
street station was the worst on the |
subway system, but under Central
park, where the tunnel is narrow and !
low, hundreds of women tainted, and
there were serious panics. There was
no smoke panic here, however.
The subway service, according to
Commissioner Mccall of the public
service commission, may be tied up for
several days as a result OF the acct
lent. II this proves true, 1t will mean
that more than 100000 persons
lay, carried by the subway trains, will
De diverted to the surface and elevated
systems and cause congestion with
tut parallel in the history Of the city.