Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1896 — AN ENGINE OF DEATH [ARTICLE]

AN ENGINE OF DEATH

MANY KILLED BY A CINCINNATI GAS GENERATOR. Awful Catastrophe Occurs When Building and Streets Were Crowded —Certain that Many Are Dead and More Mangled—Panic in the City. Tale of the Horror. At 7:45 Monday evening a teirific explosion occurred in Louis Fey’s saloon ut Cincinnati, immediately opposite the Gibson house." The building, a five-story brick, was shattered to splinters. Fey manufactured his own gas with a machine from gasoline,. A large tank filled with tlie explosive fluid was in the room in. the rear of the saloon. In addition a? barrel of gasoline was being unloaded at the time. An electric motor furnished the power. The motor was operated at too high a rate of speed, causing the commutator to burn out. This ignited the gasoline, causing the explosion. It is almost certain that at least twenty persons were- killed. A fair- estimate places the number caught iu the falling building at -Tram-sixty in seventy-five. .At least twen-ty-five people, and perhaps more, the exact number may never,,be known, were mangled, crushed, burned and scalded to death. Bodie's of Adolph Drach’s family of four, and four unknown, were quickly recovered. Three of the Fey family, two servant girls, and three men employes were missing. Twenty-five injured were removed to the hospital, two of whom will die. The explosion shook large buildings' for squares. Hundreds of windows in the Gibson House were broken and plate glass windows on both sides of Walßut street the entire length of the square -w-ere shattered. Scores of pedestrians were knocked from their feet and there were dozens of runaway tennis in the vicinity. Several electric cars wore ’thrown from the track and at least twenty female passengers on different cars fainted away and were carried into'the Gibson House and adjoining places. The electric light, telegraph, telephone and trolley wires on the square were torn down and the explosion "was followed immediately by darkness. Whole Building Destroyed. Flash lights were rigged, up across the street and the rays thrown onto the ruins, Tlie explosiorf tore the entire structure front between adjoining buildings ,on either side ns neatly as. it could hi?ve been accomplished by Workmen; All that is now left is a mass of brick, mortar and torn lumber, over which tli'e rbof rests in a slanting position. It was occupied b.y Fey’s and Droeb's saloons, both of the better class. It is estimated that forty or fifty people were inside at the time, of the explosion, and 4 it seems impossible that atiy could have escaped.-- ——— The firemen beat a path into, the adibining barber shop and began drilling holes Trough the thick brick wall in the hope of reaching some of the bodies. The heavy roof lying over the ruins made it impossible for tlie firemen to make any headway (from the top or sides. The tipper floors of the five-story building were occupied as flats. It is not known how many people were inf the flats or how many were in the saloons, but none escaped. as the building immediately collapsed. There was no fire to consume the ruin.: and make certain death of all in tlie building, but the dust and dirt continued flying for n long time so densely that the work of rescuing the victims proceeded with great difficulty.

Hia Whole Family done. One of the barkeepers, \vho was not on duty at the time and escaped, lived in one of the upper flats, and was wild with grief because he knew that his wife and four children were in the ruins. One oi his children was recovered dead soon after the explosion. As the night passed the scenes about the wrecked buildings became more distressing than ever. Women whose husband s'and SbTVS'hard' not reached home by TO or 11 o’clock =ea me down to the Fountain ‘square and filled up the space about the government building, where they were weeping nud crying about their friends -being in the wreckage. Departments at Work. All of the departments of the city were at work at the ruins. The police commissioners were in charge of their department, together with Chief Deitseh, and the fire commissioners were with Chief Archibald. The street cleaning department was out in full force, at work removing the debris and hauling it away, and good engineers were soon on hand superintending the handling of the heavy timbers. Crowded with People. The explosion occurred at a time in the evening when there were many people in the bar, ana if was said soon after the explosion that a number of women and their osT-orts had just entered. They were probably in the wine rooms in the rear of the bar. The street was well filled with pedestrians and it is almost certain that many of them were fatally injured. Standing almost in front of the building when the explosion occurred was a Newport and Covington car. It was, completely wrecked auu the half-dozen passengers and, the motorman and conductor were more or less severely injured.

Panic in the Gibson House. There were several hundred guests in the Gibson House and they all became panic-stricken. Men and womeif rushed from their rooms, the latter shrieking with terror and several of them fainting. The guests of the house who were in the lobby, barber shop and waiting-room were mocked down by the shock. It seemed to them as though the explosion was in the hotel building apd, not knowing at what moment it would be followed by another, they rushed from the hotel, adding to the panic in the street. Wreck at Liberty, Neb. At 3 o’clock Monday morning train 63, fast freight on the Burlington, going west, ran into a washout, near Liberty, Neb. The engine and three cars wero wrecked. Two trainmen were killed and several injured. Engineer Brennan was crushed between the engine and te.uder. Conductor Wilcox, who was in the engine cab at the time of the wreck, was badly mangled, one leg being torn from his body and the other badly crushed. He expired in a few minutes after beiug extricated from the wreck. The fireman was thrown from the cab window and escaped uninjured, with the exception of slight bruises, as at the time of the wreck the train was running very slowly, having orders to do so on account of the heavy rftlaMk .Engineer Bream'an’s home was at SeottsvlUe, Pa. The bridge was a short one and one that had recently been filled—that is, earth had been dumped in And the open space beneath the bridge filled up. It is supposed that the recent rains wnshed out a part or all of tills filling and that when the earth gave way a portion of the bridge went with it.