The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1917-06-14
MANY THOUGHT
TO BE DEAD IN
BROOKLYN FIRE
Explosion Traps Hundreds
in Z Story Sugar Refinery
Oh Water Front.
WRECKAGE BARS ESCAPE
Twenty-seven in Hospitals,
Some So Badly Burned That
They Cannot Recover.

A terrific explosion last night about
IL o'clock on the ffth floor of the seven
story brick mixing building OF the plant
! OF the American Sugar Refining COM
pany in the block bounded by South
Third and South Fourth streets, Kent
avenue and the East River. Brooklyn.
rocked the waterfront and ripped loose
I the entire front of the building from the
second floor upward TO the roof hurling
It across the street.
The blast was followed Immediately
by burst OF fame that swept through
the structure, brilliantly lighted up the
East River and the lower tip of Manhat-
/ tan. and which was not brought under
/ control until after three hours OF hard
I fighting.
I Reports received by the Fire and Po-
! lice departments and by Fire Marshal
Brophy at 3 o'clock this morning indi-
| Gated that OF the 500 men. mostly me-
| groes. Lithuanians. Polaks and Slovaks,
! working in the night shift on the seven
| floors of the building twenty have been
killed or buried beneath those parts of
the building which were ripped away by
the force of the explosion. with more
than hundred injured.
! or the injured seventeen are in the
Eastern District Hospital. the Williams
burg Hospital. the Cumberland Street
! Hospital, with ten others in scattered
! hospitals throughout Brooklyn so seri-
/ ously injured. with their hair burned
! from their heads and their skins shriv-
eled from their bodies. that they are not
expected to live through to-day.
Many Others slightly Hurt.
Scores of others were attended at the
scene of the fire by ambulances or taken
to hospitals for treatment for minor in
juries, 1t is not believed that more than
100 OF the 500 workmen escaped injury
OF some sort
| Officials refused last night to hazard
a guess as to the cause of the explosion.
but fremen and patrolmen doing rescue
work or fighting the flames freely ex-
pressed the opinion that the blast could
have come only from a bomb or large
| quantities of explosives. The force of
the explosion was 50 great that besides
ttearing out the front Of the building as
! If II had been so much paper It smashed
1 windows in houses several blocks away.
sent tenement house dwellers fleeing TO
the streets in terror and hurled to the
| floor a score OF men who were lounging
against the bars OF three saloons across
the street from the building
! The great tongue OF flame that poured
out through the DESTROYED front OF the
/ building lighted up the neighboring
J
within half an hour crowd OF 25 1000
persons thronSed the streets watching
the fire and being pushed back with diff
ticuty ~ police reserves from several
stations.
Two alarms were quickly turned in
by the first fire company to reach the
scene and then came in rapid succession
a third and fourth alarm and finally
the "7-7," call that brought out be-
sides the apparatus from Brooklyn.
twelve engines and four trucks from
Manhattan-all of the Manhattan ap-
paratus that usually answers a three
alarm fire at the Manhattan end OF the
Williamsburg Bridge. Four fireboats
steamed up the East River and added
their lines of hose to the force fighting
the flames from the land but even with
the most formidable force that has
fought a waterfront fire within recent
years it was believed at . o'clock that
the flames could not be prevented from
spreading TO other parts OF the plant.
Blast as From Dynamite.
The blast on the fifth floor went Off
with the power and the noise that ac-
company the detonation OF large quanti-
ties OF dynamite Fifty men were work
ing on that floor. packing sugar into
1
were singing when the blast came. The
next instant there was binding fash OF
flame coming on the heels OF the ex-
plosion.
The men, surrounded by flashing
tongues of fame. with their hair burned
from their heads. their clothing falling
from them in ashes. screamed in such
mortal terror that their cries were heard
on the street above the roar of the
thA !, ,t,,ev r.f A~..
and timbers as great sections OF the
side walls on the South Third street
and Kent avenue sides OF the building
bulged outward and then crashed to
the pavement
The fifth floor was on fire in a hun
dred places, beams and bricks from the
topping upper stories were raining
down on them. as the fifty men
| scrambled and crawlcd to the exits.
Down the stairs they ran. crazed with
fear and pain. and Joined the masses
of workmen from the lower floors that
streamed toward the doors.
Escape Barred by Flames
From many OF these doors their es-
cape was barred by leaping tongues OF
flame or by huge piles OF bricks and
timber that had been torn from the
walls by the power OF the explosion
Scores OF them managed to make their
way to the street. where they toppled in
unconscious heaps as soon as the crisp
night air met their barred and burned
bodies
Valiant rescue work was done by four
Catholic priests-the Revs, NJ. 0.
Matthews. John Flynn, Joseph Murphy
and Andrew Dunagan. They had been
to meeting In the neighborhood and
chanced to be passing within n minute
or two after the explosion occurred.
They stopped to look at the fire. and in
another minute they saw the burned men
pouring from the doors and colIapsing
on the pavement. Bravng the fire and
the falling bricks, the four priests ran
across the street, and one by one they
lifted the unconscious workmen and car
ried them to a saloon at South Fourth
street and Kent avenue. where they
were spattered with -four.
The priests telephoned Brooklyn police
headquarters. and while ambulances
were hurrying to the scene they carried
men across the street until the front and
back rooms of the saloon were crowded
with men, some of whom were burned
out OF almost all semblance to anything
human.