Evening star., 1927-04-23
70 KILLED, 100 HURT
|. AS BLAST WRECKS
. AUTO BODY PLANT
Many of Injured Expected to
Die-MoSt of Them Over
come by Fumes.
HEAT CRUMBLES WALLS
OF 4-ST0RY BUILDING
Flames Leap Street, Residents Of
Neighborhood Flee-First-Aid
Station Abandoned.

BY the Associated Press.
DETROIT, April 23.-Fire follow
ing a series of explosions in one of
the main plants of the Briggs Manu-
featuring Co, an automobile body
firm, early today killed at least 20
men and injured more than 100, ac'
cording to an early estimate by fire.
men. Two firemen. who were on the
roof of the building, are believed to
have fallen to death in the blazing
interior. The building, new four
story brick and steel structure. was
destroyed.
Shortly before noon definite
check of the number of dead and in
iured was not available. Many of the
dead were believed to be in the still
blazing ruins.
Ambulances took a dozen or more
loads of injured to various hospitals
At Receiving Hospital, where Is in
jured were brought, DR.. Thomas x.
Gruber, superintendent, said that
probably two-thirds of them would die.
1000 Were at Work.
"A WlLlu anu liLG lEGA lIthL LllC
plant contained large quantities of
paints and varnishes used in automo-
bile body finishing hampered efforts
at rescue work. More than 1000 per-
sons were at work in the building at
the time of the explosion.
Many of the injured were treated
in the plants first-aid station, but
~ - nla IA1
flames spread to that part of the
victims of the heavy smoke and fumes
that spread throughout the building
soon after the explosion.
AS the fire continued more than an
hour and half after the explosion,
occupants of nearby houses and stores
were directed to vacate Immediately,
it being apparent the walls of the
plant would collapse. Police lines
were establihed 500 feet around the
plant.
Motor Believed Cause.
The cause of the explosion was not
Immediately determined, but a work
man expressed the belief a short
circuited motor was responsible.
Adolph Hussey, a truck driver. de-
scribed the explosion as follows;
II had just delivered an order to a
store across the street from the plant
and was coming out of the store when
I heard the explosion. There were two
Of them, one after the other. The
whole wall seemed to crumple up and
fall into the street, and bricks and
stones were everywhere.
"A man was blown through the
vI1 nf rf the v1yfV,I
along the street. Another man and /
helped to pick him up and sent him
to the hospital. He was injured seri.
ously, but still living"
AT 1920 o'clock the walls on the
Harper avenue side of the building
collapsed and the fire spread to the
opposite side Of the street.
Worker Describes Blast.
Floyd King. 90, checker working
on the third floor of the building, who
escaped with slight burns, said: "It
was like standing in the mouth Of q
cannon while it was being exploded >
The first explosion, he said,> came
without warning and was followed q
second later by a soaring sheet oi
flame that engulfed a spraying room
WHeTe on men were working.
1T came like a clap of thunder >
King said. 'Then everything became
fire. The fire passed over my heaC
like wave and burned by hair. ]
started running for my clothes to get
my money and my street car tickets
II had taken no more than a hall
dozen steps when some one bumped
against me and knocked me down
fell to the floor. While / was strug
Cling to get up the floor leaped into
flames, and was burned on the shoul
der and arms.
"I was lucky" he said. 'I don't
know what happened to the other men
I know that their clothes seemed tc
shrivel into rags when the sheet oi
fire hit them. The room was like a
furnace"