Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-16
Many Victims Succumb
During Night to
Deadly Fumes.
EXPECT FEW TO LIVE
Rescuers, Stricken in AT
tempts to Save Others,
Expire.
Continued From First Page.)

clinic Just as the first blast occurred,
She got Whit of the gas, returned TO
her home thankful to have escaped
death, and then felt the ominous effects
of the fatal fumes. All three under
went blood transfuSionS.
Physicians said that although all OF
the victims may not die, many seemed
certain to succumb eventually. The
fatal results of inhaling the gas might
be delayed for hours. perhaps longer,
they said. but slowly the red blood cor
puscles might combine with carbon
monoxide instead of oxygen, and the
end will be unacceptable.
Explosion Fires Woodwork.
The gas was identified by DR.. William
E. Lower one of the chiefs of the clinic,
as nitrous peroxide, realised by burning
X-ray film. The celluloid preparation
was fired in an unknown way in base
ment storeroom.
An explosion of the pent-up gas that
rocked the building followed 1t filled
the building with gas and as the
compression increased, second and
larger blast demolished much of the
interior and set the woodwork aflane.
More than 800 persons were III the
building when the first explosion came
at 1925 o'clock in the morning. Some
escaped before the fumes reached them.
Others died in frantic flight, their
bodies strewing the stairways and floors.
Many died after reaching the open air
and still more succumbed in hospitals.
Several Yet Unidentified.
A constant stream of ambulances
hurried between the clinic and nearby
hospitals, and other conveys bore the
dead to the county morgue. There they
lay while long lines of persons passed
the bodies. many OF them stretched in
lines along the floor. The building was
taxed to capacity.
AS the bodies were identified they
were. removed. but the long queque,
silent and Sorrowful, passed through the
morgue until late last night. Today
several of the victims remained uni
Identified.
The open door released the flames
and sent the spiraling column of mus
tard-colored gas up through the foyer
to the roof. The gas reached the foyer
on the second floor through the stair
cases. There 1t rose through the open
center of the building to the roof, pene-
trating to examining rooms in the clinic
from the balconies which opened on
the foyer below.
With the first explosion, firemen con-
cluded, the gas swept upward and filled
the building. Pent in, with compress
sion increasing as the heat intensified,
the gas exploded second time. 1t
leaped in flame from the basement to
the foyer skylight, Scorching woodwork,
blasting masonry and enveloping the
interior In an inferno Of stencil and
heat.
The skylight was shattered and glass
from the windows was hurled across
the street. The doors, enforced with
steel, buckled under the terrific suction
of air as the gas was released.
Hardened plaster was blistered and
peeled from the walls. A steel network
Of the plastering was peeled from the
walls and hung along the balconies.
Then came the confusion. The
swirling brown clouds, nauseating and
made heavier by the sickening smell of
burning celluloid, enveloped the build
ing. The fire soon spent itself, but the
clouds Of gas, smoke and the odor of
burning chemicals chung to the build
ing hours after the fire was ex-
tinguished.
Trace Route Of Flames.
The route Of the scorching flames
from the basement to the roof could
be followed up the stairway to the
first floor on the hand rails, the char
red woodwork and stained fittings Of
the hospital The door leading to the
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victims were taken, withstood the
flames. The tunnel 1t guarded was
wood lined and had the white-hot
flames of the burning gas reached 1t
the deaths resulting might have been
many times greater.
1t was the silver bromide and silver
iodide acids in the coatings of the
films which rapidly expanded into
clouds of gas and choked the occupants
nf ha hrfi1din1 Tho found
way between the walls, into the air
shafts, and between the ceiling and
roof on the top floor The second and
last explosion was general and de-
vastating.
Only one thing, perhaps, saved the
building from collapse, flremen said,
and that was the skylight.
1t happened SO quickly that few had
opportunity to escape. 1t was past
so soon that within an hour and half
all the bodies had been removed. Fire
men said the loss to the building, de-
spite the number of dead, would not be
more than $4,000.
Pedestrians Knocked Down.
Pedestrians caught outside the build
ing toppled to the ground and lay un-
conscious until dragged to safety when
the gas lifted. One woman smashed
third-floor window and was prepar-
ing to leap as firemen spread life net.
She stood poised, the amber gas
Swirled about her shoulders, and she
collapsed, falling inside the building.
Stephen WeiZer, elevator operator,
was in his car in the basement. He
shot the car to the fifth floor penthouse
and escaped with burns about the face
and hands. Two workmen in coal
bin below the X-ray film storage room
were Jared, but not otherwise injured.
Dr. Carl Helwig, an inferno at an
other hospital, went to Mt. Sinai Hospi-
tai to aid in resusitation and came
upon his wife, who had gone TO the
clinic for examination. She died as
he worked to save her.