Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1919 — 10 PEOPLE KILLED BY AIRSHIP FALL [ARTICLE]

10 PEOPLE KILLED BY AIRSHIP FALL

Cliches on Fire In Midair and Crashes Through Skylight of Bank Building. OTHEB BANK CLERKS INJURED Frenzied Passengers Leap From Experimental Craft With Parachutea—Two Reach Street Safely. Chicago, July 21.—Ten persona were killed and 25 injured when a large dirigible balloon on Its tost flight caught Are and fell 500 f#ec fc crashing through the glass root of the Illinois Trust and Savings bank, Jackson boulevard and La* Salle street, at 5 o'clock this afternoon. Most of the dead were employee of the bank, trapped and burned to death in a fire caused by the explosion of the baloon’s gasoline tanks, as they hit the floor of the bank rotunda, where more than 200 bookkeepers and clerks, nearly all girls, were working. The baloon, owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber company of Akron, 0., had been flying above thg city for several hours when the accident occurred. When approximately 500 feet above the bank a spurt of flame was seen to shoot from the top of the gas bag near the center of the aircraft. The ✓crowds gathered on the streets to watch the flight saw the machine buckle and quiver an it started on Its fatal plunge. Four of Its occupants Jumped and two landed safely In the streets as the blimp, a ball of flame, struck the roof of the bank with a crash audible throughout the downtown district. There was nothing to warn the hundreds of employes of the Institution of the coming . tragedy. A shadow passed over the marble rotunda where 150 were and a crash followed. The bank’s closing hour for patrons had passed, but the clerks were still at work in various departments. It seemed, according to the sur* vlvors, that the entire bank was on fire. Breaking through the Iron supports holding the glass overhead, the fusllage of the balloon with two heavy rotary engines and several gasoline tanks smashed to the floor.

Instantly the tanks exploded, scattering a wave of flaming gasoline over the workers for a radius of 50 feet. A panic ensued. There were only two exits through which they could leave the wire cage which surrounded the rotunda. Men and girls with clothing flaming fought their way through the exits. Girls on the second floor ran screaming to the windows and several jumped to the street. In an instant the marble rotunda was cleared except for the dead, fwhose bodies were burled under the mass of debris, and the dying, who crawled away from the scorching fire, their clothes burning off. The Intense heat made rescue work difficult until after the fire department arrived. It was 80 minute® before the bodies under the craft’s fusilage could be dragged out. They were burned beyond recognition. Meanwhile ambulances from every hospital and undertaking establishment near the center of the city came and the police threw a cordon about the place. .Dozens were found to have been more or lees seriously cut by the shower of glass which preceded the explosion. The J cause of the Are which brought the flaming gas bag down Is not definitely known. None of /the crew could ascribe a definite reason. Two theories were offered, however. One was that a gpark from the rotary motors set the gas afire. The other was that the balloon was overcharged and the sun’s rays caused it to expand and burst, the fire following the contact of the gas with sparks in the motors. It was Intended to charge the bag with a pure mixture of hydrogen, which is not Inflamable. It was conjectured, however, that a quantity 1 of oxygen became mixed In the charging process, rendered a high explosive combination.

When Jack Boettner, an employe of the rubber company and pilot of the craft, saw the flicker of flame he shouted a warning to the other passengers and jumped from the fusilage. All were protected by parachutes attached to their bodies by belts. Henry Weaver and Harry Wacker, mechanicians, followed Boettner, E. H. Norton, a photographer for a morning newspaper, was the last to leap. The fifth man, Earl H. Davenport, publicity agent for an amusement park where the balloon thasvits hangar, did not get out. His body struck the roof of the bank and burned to a crisp. Weaver’s parachute was ablaze and he was overtaken by the flaming balloon and carried down to death. Boettner and Waeker landed practically unhurt. Norton suffered broken legs and'severe internal injuries. The others dead were .crushed and burned in the rotunda of the bank. The central portion of the bank was wrecked and it was an hour before the fire could be extinguished.