Evening star., 1947-07-31
Staff Photos.
Fire Underwriters
Meet 10 Investigate
Harrisonburg Blast
BY a Sfoff Correspondent Of The Stor

HARRISONBURG, Va, July 81
Fire underwater experts from va
rious parts of the country were to
meet here today in an effort to es-
tablish definitely the cause of the
blast which demolished a beauty
parlor and three adjacent stores
Tuesday, killing 10 women and in
juring 80 other persons.
Police and fire officials had ruled
out every possible factor except gas.
1t could not have been a boiler
explosion, officials said, as there
was no fire in the furnace, and
several small boilers were found
intact in the wreckage.
Only ton and half of coal had
been put into the basement at the
time of the explosion and this was
not considered enough to make a
dangerous concentration of coal
dust. Firemen were informed that
intense heat or pressure is necessary
to ignite coal dust.
Operator Broadcasts.
The inf1ammable liquids, waving,
tinting lotions, etc., kept in beauty
salon were held to be too negligible
in quantity to have been responsible
for so devastating a blast even had
they been exploded.
Mrs. Pearl Judy, one of the op-
orators at the Pauline Beauty Shop
and College, spoke yesterday over
Station WSVA, to express her opin-
ion that gas was the cause of the
explosion.
Mrs. Judy. who required only
brief disqualification after a mirac-
ulous escape from the wreckage,
said that there had been so much
trouble" with the gas heater in the
shop that "at least three different
ones were installed during the past
year"
Charles Burke. manager of the
gas company, said he has not had
time to determine what the COM
plants might have been in the past
from the beauty parlor, two doors
down the street from the gas COM
pany Offices. He added that he is
withholding all comment until his
insurance investigators arrive today.
Seven Leave Hospital.
Meanwhile, seven of the injured
have been discharged from Rock
ington Memorial Hospital, leaving
only 13 persons there today under
treatment for burns and cuts sus-
tanned in the explosion.
Miss Ruth Eleanor Hart, 80, of
Front Royal, was the only victim
still listed as in critical condition.
Among those taken off the criti-
cal list was Jesse James Mullen, 25-
year-old Menefee Coal Co. employe,
who struck a match to light a
cigarette just before the fatal blast.
Firemen expressed the belief
Tuesday night that 1t was this
match that set off a concentration
of gas in the basement.
Miss Mildred Moore, 19-year-old
resident of Falls Church and a
student of Madison College here,
was discharged yesterday afternoon
from the hospital. Miss Moore and
her fiance, Glenn Wade, %, of Bax-
ter Springs, Kans., were shopping
for crystal ware in the adjoining
Rhodes Jewelry Store when the
blast occurred.
Debris Left Intact.
The debris has been left intact
pending conclusion of the investj-
cation. Crowds of curious passed
all day yesterday to stare at the
gaping, litter-streWn hole which
once was the beauty establishment
and at the gaunt walls of The ad-
joining stores.
A constant police guard was main-
tanned to keep onlookers outside the
ropes.
Attendants at local funeral homes
to which bodies of the dead were
removed, said arrangements for
burial were being made by families
of the dead.
No mass funeral was planned, 1t
was pointed out, since the dead
were residents of scattered COM
munities in the Shenandoah Valley.