Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-22
Balloon Exp|Odes
 and Ten are Killed
Blazing Mass of Wreckage Crashes Through Skylight
 of Chicago Bank Building More Than Score Injured.

Chicago, July 21-Ten persons were killed and twenty-fiye injured when a large difigible balloon on it's test flight caught fire and feil 500 feet, Illinois Trust and Savings Bank Jackson Boulevard and La Sale street at five o'clock this afternoon.
 Most of the dead were employees of the bank. trapped and burned to death in a fire caused by the explo- sion of the balloons gasoline tanks as they hit the floor-of the bank TO- tunda where more than two hundred bookkeepers and clerks, nearly all girls. were working.
 The balloon owned by the Good : year Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, had been flying above the city for several hours when the ac- cident occurred
 When approximately 500 feet above the bank 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 street watch ing the flight saw the machine buckle and culver as it started on its fatal plunge.
 Four of it's occupants jumped and two landed safely in the streets as tEe blimp. a ball of flame. struck the roof of the bank with a crash audible throughout the downtown district.
 There was nothing to warn the hundreds of employees of the instiu- t1on of the coming ragedy. A shadow passed over the rble rotunda where The banks closing hours for patronage had passed but the clerks were still at work in various departments.
 Breaking through the iron supports lage of the balloon with two heavy TO- tary engines and several gasoline tanks smashed to the floor.
 Instantly ths tanks exploded, scat tering a wave of flaming gasoline over the workers for a radius of fifty feet. A panic ensued. There were only two exits from the wire cage and through them men and girls with clothing flaming fought their way. Girls on the second floor ran screaming to the windows and several jumped to the street.
 Tn an instant the marble rotunda was cleared except for the dead whose bodies were buried under the crawled away from the scorching fire, their clothes burning off.
 The intense heat made rescue work difficult and it was thirty minutes e. fore the bodies under the crafts fu- silage could be dragged out They we~e burned beyond recognition.
 The cause of the fire which brought the aming gas bag down is not de- fnitely known. None of tre crew could ascrfbe "a definite reason.
 Two theories were offerad however One was that spark from the rotary motors set the gas afire- Tie other was that the tailoon was overcharged and the suns rays cauSed it to eX- pand and bust, tHe fire following the contact of the gas with sparks in the motors.
 When Jack Boattner. an employs ct the rubber com.,a ny ard pilo "'' the craft. saw the flicker of flame he shouted warning to the other pas sengers and jumped from -he fusil- age.
 All were protected by parachutes to their bodies by belts.
 Henry Weaver and Harry w lctlc-. mechanicians, followed Boettner. E. H. Norton, a photographer for morning newspaper. was the last to leap. The fifth man, Earl H. Daven- port, publicity agent for an amuse- ment park where the balloon has it's hangar, did. not get out.
 His body struck the roof of the bank and burned to a crisp. Wea- ver's parachute was ablaZe and he was overtaken by the flaming balloon and carried down to death.
 Boettner and Wacker landed prac- ticany unhurt. Norton suffered broken legs and severe internal injuries.
 The other dead were crushed and burned in the rotunda of the bank.
 The central portion of the bank was wrecked and it was an hour before the fire could be extinguished.