The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-07-24
BLAZING BALLOON THROUGH
BANK ROOF
Eleven Lives Lost When Blazing
Air Craft Drops Through Roof
of Chicago Financial
Institution.

Chicago, July 2I.-Eleven were
killed and twenty-seven injured some
of whom may die, when a gigantic
dirigible. OH its test flight, caught
fire and fell five hundred feet, crash
ing through the glass roof of the
Illinois Trust & Savings Bank short
ly before 5 o'clock this afternoon.
Most of the dead were employees
of the bank. trapped and burned to
death in withering rain of fire
caused by the explosion of the ball
looms gasoline tanks as they hit the
floor of the rotunda of the bank
where over two hundred bookkeep-
ers and clerks, nearly all girls, were
working.
The "blimp" owned by the Good
year Tire & Rubber Company, of
Akron, o., had been flying in the sky
above the loop for several hours
when the accident occurred. Thou
sands, witnessed it.
The dead:
James Carpenter, 10 years old,
bank messenger, Illinois Trust &
Savings Bank.
Earl Davenport, White City repre-
sentative, former sporting writer.
Marie Florence, bank employee.
Irene Miles, bank stenographer.
Evelyn Meyer, bank stenographer.
Carl Otto, bank telegrapher.
Henry Weaver, blimp mechanic.
Joseph Scanlan, ID years old, bank
messenger
Edward Munzer, bank correspond
Ence clerk.
Two unidentified women.
When approximately 500 feet
above the bank, a squirt of flame was
seen to shoot from the top 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 quiver as it started
on its fatal plunge.
Four of its five occupants jumped
and two of these landed safely in the
streets as the. "blimp," veritable
ball of flame, struck the roof of the
bank with crash audible through
out the loop district
There was nothing to warn the
hundreds of employees of the insti-
tuition of the coming tragedy. A
shadow passed over the marble ro-
tunda where $50 were busy and ter-
rifying crash followed.
1t seemed, according to the surviv-
ors, that the entire bank was on fire.
Breaking through the iron supports
holding the glass overhead, the fusi-
lage 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 radius of fifty
feet. A panic ensued. There were
only two exits through which they
could leave the wire cage which sur
rounded the rotunda.
Men and girls, with clothing flam-
ing, fought their way through the
exits. Girls on the second floor ran
screaming to the windows and sew
eral jumped to the street below.
Stories of the crash were myriad.
Yet practically all agreed. That of
Miss Harriet Messenger, the tele-
] phone operator, who sat tending her
switchboard on the balcony above the
rotunda was typical.
There was shadow, and l looked
up to the roof. Instantly a crash
sent the glass flying on the heads of
those below the glass roof.
I'll he girls hesitated, many. of them
stunned by glass or too frightened to
run. Then the huge machine came
through. 1t seemed to fill the bank
with flames that searched out every
corner. The heavy part, with its en-
gines and tanks, fell to the floor and
exploded.
II ran then to window and called
for help. l started to jump, but no
one made move to catch me, so I
ran to the street safely"