New Britain herald., 1929-05-16
CLEVELAND DEATH
 TOTAL NOW IS l20
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(Contlnued from First Page) condition. He was not permitted to see visitors today.
 At the time of the explosion . moving van was taking his belong ings from his residence to another part of tho city and his family could not be located.
 Vault Door .rnilanaaged
 City Manager Hopkins and fire men who examined the building after the tragedy came to the con- clusion that the vault door guarding the films had been open because the only damage to it was from heat.
 The brownish stain, noticed on the faces of the bodies in the morgues, emeared the outside of the clinic building today. The terrific force of the gases which sent 800 persons into a panic split walls. shattered windows, cleared medicine cabinets, mirrors and pictures from walls and crashed in ceilings, was seen clearly.
 The route of the scorching flames from the basement to the roof could he followed up the stairway to the first floor on the hand rails. the charred woodwork and stained ft- tings of the hospital. The door lead ing to the hispital in tho rear, where most of the victims were taken. withstood the flames. The tunnel It guarded was wood lined and had the white-hot flames of the burning gas reached it the deaths resulting might have been many times great CT.
 Bromide and Iotlide Gases Killed
 It was the silver bromide and sil- yer iodide acids in the coatings or the films which rapidly expandeo into clouds of gas and choked tne occupants of the building. The gas found its way between the walls into the air shafts, and between the ceiling and roof on the top floor. The seconA and las explosion was gen. eral and devastating.
 Only one thing, perhaps. saved 'ne building from collapse, hremen sa'o the skylight. It gave way and per. mitted the deadly fumes 10 mount skyward
 Agree On Blame
 Authorities agreed that the blame ,av in the K-ray storage room Tn tne basement of the four story pr'cK structure and that the deadly fumes swirled from ignited X-ray film. But they disagreed as to whether the clouds of dark yellow gas that snu1- fed out so many lives were nitrous peroxide or a bromine and iodine vapor.
 Evidence of Deadly Gas
 Twelve bodies. scared and yellow cd by the gas, were found in the X-ray room, mute evidence Of the fumes deadliness. Twelve other bodies, equally discolored, were taken from the roof. Between those points were many sprawled bodies Of dead and injured, surrounded by cracked walls, broken pipes, shat tered windows and overturned tables.
 A nurse was found lying dead across wheel chair bearing pa tient she had tried vainly to wheel to safety. Some patients were trap ned and killed in bed. Others ran naked or partly dressed only to fall half way to exits.
 Fire Doors Closed
 Possibly 1t was a defective wire in the X-ray apparatus that started the horror. Patients heard a muf- fled roar from the X-ray basement room. All fire doors immediately | closed. Poison gas. generated from the explosion; was forced through l the ventilator shaft by the heat.
 Thin, yellow wisps were seen etraying onto the second noor. climbing upward through a court l into the third and fourth floors and emerging from the blown-out sky light.
 Interior Gutted
 Those on the first floor ran out | to safety or remained to warp per- sons on the floors above. Telephone l operators stayed at their posts to | give warnings. Confusion indescrib- able followed. Fire raced up a rear | stairway and spread. Fifteen min- utes after the first explosion. a sec ond came, driving rescuers back. Forty-five minutes later, third oc- cured. tearing out pipes. crumbling | the walls and breaking all windows fin the clinic and adjoining struc- lures. Little of the buildings in- terior was left intact.
 Persons standing outside were fell cd by the force of the first blast. One passerby was reported to have received broken arm.
 A policeman hurried up. smelled the fumes many yards away. and dashed to an alarm box. Soon am- balances, fire apparatus and com mandeered automobiles formed steady stream to the scene of trage- dy.
 Ladders were strunk to windows of the three upper floors. Police. men and firemen with gas masks
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