Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-07-29
BLIMP ExPLODES;
Il PERSONS DIE
Airship in Flames Crashes
Through Roof of Chicago
Bank.
CLERKS TRAPPEDAND BURNED
Thousands See Big Gas Dirigible
Burst and Crew Leap in Para
chutes-Gas Tank Explodes
in the Bank.


killed and twenty-five injured when
q gigantic dirigible on its test flight
caught fire and fell 500 feet, crashing
through the glass roof of the Illinois
Trust and Savings bank, Jackson
boulevard and La Sale street, shortly
before five o'clock in the afternoon.
Most of the dead were employees
of the bank, trapped and burned to
death in a whitening rain of fire
caused by the explosion of the bal
looms gasoline tanks as they hit the
floor of the bank rotunda, where over
200 bookkeepers and clerks, nearly
all girls, were working.
The Dead.
James Carpenter, sixteen years old,
Illinois Trust and Savings messenger.
Earl Fl. Davenport, formerly sport
ing writer on various papers.
Marie Florence, Illinois Trust and
Savings bank employee.
Irene Miles, stenographer, Illinois
Trust and Savings bank.
Evelyn Meyers, stenographer Illinois
Trust and Savings bank.
Edward Munzer, correspondence
clerk at bank.
Carl Otto, telegrapher for the bank.
Joseph Seaman, bank messenger.
Henry "Buck" Weaver. Warren, O.,
mechanic; occupant of dirigible.
Unidentified woman, burned beyond
recognition.
Unidentified woman, so badly
burned Identification almost impos-
sible.
The blimp, owned by the Goodyear
Tire and Rubber company of Akron,
O., had been flying about the city for
several hours when the accident oc-
Cured. Thousands witnessed the
catastrophe.
When approximately 500 fet above
| the bank a squirt of flame was seen to
shoot from the center Of the gas bag
near the center of the aircraft. The
crowds gathered on the streets to
watch the flight saw the great ma
chine buckle and culver as it started
| on its fatal plunge.
Four Of it's five occupants jumped,
and two landed safely in the streets
as the blimp, veritable ball of flame,
struck the roof of the bank with a
crash audible Throughout the loop dis
| trict.
There was nothing to warn the hun
dreds of employees of the institution
| of the coming tragedy. A shadow
passed over the marble rotunda, where
$50 were busy, and a terrifying crash
| followed. The banks closing hour for
patrons had passed, but the clerks
were still at work in various depart
ments.
1t seemed, according to the surviv-
ors, that the entire bank was on fire.
Breaking through the iron supports
holding the glass overhead, the fusil-
age of the blimp, with two heavy
rotary engines and several gasoline
| tanks, smashed to the floor.
Instantly the tanks exploded, scat
tering wave of flaming gasoline over
| the workers for a radius of so feet.
A panic enSued. There were only
two exits through which they could
leave the wire cage which surrounded
the rotunda.
Men and girls with clothing flaming
Girls on the second floor ran scream
ing to the window and several Jumped
to the street.
In an instant the marble rotunda
was cleared except for the dead,
whose bodies were burned under the
flaming mass. licked to white heat
by the gasoline blaze. and the dying,
who crawled feebly away from the
seorching fire, their clothes burn
ing off.
The intense heat made rescue work
impossible until after the fire depart
ment arrived on a four-eleven alarm
call. 1t was 80 minutes before the
bodies under the crafts fusilage could
be dragged out. They were burned
beyon drecognition.
Meanwhile ambulances from every
hospital and undertaking establish
ment near the center of the city came
and the police threw Gordon about
the place. Dozens were found to have
been more or less seriously cut by the
shower of glass which preceded the ex.
plosion-
The cause of the fire which brought
the flaming gas bag plunging down is
not known None of the crew could
ascribe a definite reason for the ac-
cident.