Palisadian., 1923-05-04
HOT WATER BOILER IN HOLTHAUSEN
HOME EEXPL LODES At "a. N. DOING MUCH
DAMAGE; LOSS UP IN THOUSANDS
Young Children Have Miraculous Escape Boiler
Shoots Near Through Floors and Lands in
Attic; Whole House Distorted.

The palatial home Of Carl Holt
housens. Bluff road, Palisade, was
badly wrecked last Wednesday morn
ing about 3 o'clock through the ex-
plosion of a hotwater heater located
next to the house heating furnace in
the cellar About bedtime the gas
was turned on under. the water heater
for bathing purposes, and soon the
family retired. The three little Holt
hausens sleep all in the northwest
room on the second floor. Mr. and
Mrs. Holthausen occupy the room
across the hall to the east. When the
explosion came, it was with a dull
shock without a loud report. But it
was startling enough to arouse the
whole family and at once all were up
and running about to see what had
happened.
They soon found out. The brass
boiler in the cellar had exploded and
the upper half of it had been blown
through the ground floor, the second
floor and the attic floor, where it fell
over on it's side and rested after hav-
ing shattered every particle of plas-
ter off the cellar ceiling, besides do
ing many other queer antics. For in
stance:
The windows of the dining room on
the ground floor were blown out en-
tirely.
On the floor of the main parlor, the
largest room of the home, magnifi-
cent salon, containing a grand piano
and other vauable furniture, fine
mahogany table, four feet square, was
split in half on the bottom; the piano
was badly shaken, and the floor of
this fine room actually lifted off the
steel beam that supported it in the
construction at least foot off the
level. The flooring also was ripped
apart.
The furniture in the dining room
was left at an angle, so that the side
board leaned at least half foot off
the level, while the chairs were scat
tered and overturned around the
room. Cut glass in the sideboard was
shivered into atoms, as was other
glass and china, all valuable.
The plaster of the ceilings on the
first and second floors was shaken
down in huge fakes, leaving the bare
laths
The cellar was a sight to behold.
Everything in it was turned topsy-
turvey, and the fallen plaster made it
look the spectacle of a wreck The
main thing that prevented an even
greater wreck was the fact that the
main supports of the lower floors
were large steel beams. The upheav-
al of the floors could not resist the
sustaining force of these beams,
hence the outer brick walls of the
house were not at all affected. The
main floor was finally tamped into it's
proper place during Wednesday by
the use of large six-inch logs of oak
three feet long The workmen rammed
and rammed till the floors finally took
their level on the steel beams again.
AS a spectacle the explosion left
something worth seeing. The miracle
of the accident was the fact that the
upper half of the boiler went shoot
ing like cannon ball through the
first floor and ceiling, and actually
passed within a foot of the small bed
of Baby Margarite. On the other
side of the room slept the two little
boys, Junior Holthausen and Master
Duncan, the youngest boy. This room
was wet with hot water, but fortunate
ly not a drop fell upon a child.
Various estimates on the loss from
the explosion ran from $4,000 to S10,-
900. 1t is thought that ordinary fire
insurance would not prevail against
such an accident as this, yet it was
clearly caused by fire.