The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-22
INQUIRY INTO
BALLOON DISASTER
Seventeen Employees of the
Goodyear Tire and Rub
ber Co. Held.
BIG DIRIGIBLE FELL
ON BANK BUILDING
Eleven Killed and 26 Injured-B Bank
Girls Caught and Perished in Flood of
Tire-Bodies Burned Beyond Identi-
fication

CHICAGO, H., July 22-Oficial in
quiry was started today to fix respon-
sibilty for the explosion and collapse
of the dirigible which crashed through
the roof of the Illinois Trust and Say
ings bank yesterday afternoon killing
IL persons and injurirg 26 others. Sew
enteen employees Of the Goodyear Tire
and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio,
owners of the airship, have been de
tanned pending decision as to wheth
er charges of carelessness shall be fled
against them. Among them are Jack
Boettneer, high man of the dirigible,
who escaped by jumping with a para
chute
OF the eleven dead, nine were en-
pleyes OF the bank and two were pas
sengers in the airship. When the bal
loon crashed through the skylight of
the bank, more than 200 employees, most
ly girls, were at work.
Tho dirigible balloon on its test flight
caught fire and fell 500 feet, crashing
through the glass roof of the Illinois
Trust and Savings bank, Jackson boul-
evard and La Sale street, at clock
yesterday afternoon
Most of the dead were employees of
the bank trapped and burned to death
in fire caused by the explosion of the
balloon s gasoline tanks as they hit
| the floor of the bank rotunda where
more than 200 bookkeepers and clerks,
nearly all girls, were working.
! The balloon. owned by the Goodyear
| Tire and Rubber company of Akron, O..
| had been flying above the city for sew
eral hours when the accident occurred.
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 machine buckle and
quiver as it started on its fatal plunge
Four of its occupants jumped and
two landed safely into the streets as
the blimp, ball of flame, struck the
roof of the bank with a crash audible
throughout the downtown district.
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 crash followed The
bank IS closing hour for patrons had
passed but the clerks were still at work
in various departments.
1t seemed according to the survivors
that the entire bank was on fire. Break
ing through the iron supports holding
he glass overhead the fusilade of thC
Rballoon with two heavy rotary engines
and several gasoline tanks smashed tc
the floor.
Instantly the tanks exploded, scat
, tering a wave of flaming gasoline over
the workers for a radius of 80 feet a
panic ensued. There were only two exit,
through which they could leave the wire
cage which surrounded the rotunda.
Men and girls with clothing flaming
!, fought their way through the exits
Girls on the second floor ran screaming
to the windows and several Jumped t.
the street.
! In an instant the marble rofunda wa,
; cleared exeept for the dead, who's,
| bodies were burned under the mass O
:, debris and the diving, who crawled ava,
from the seorching fire, their clothe
burning off
The intense heat made rescue worl
difficult until after the fire department
Il arrived on a four-eleven alarm call. T
! was 30 minutes before the bodies unde
: the craft S fusilade could be dragge,
7 7 ont. They were burned beyond recogni
tion.
The cause of the fire which brough
:. the flaming gas bag down is not defin
. itelv known. None of the crew coul
! ascribe a definite reason
|
il so1nIpp. ,nm.o