Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1897 — EIGHT BURN TO DEATH. [ARTICLE]

EIGHT BURN TO DEATH.

Disastrous Result of a Natural Gas Explosion Near Indianapolis. The village of Broad Ripple, eight miles north of Indianapolis, was almost wiped off the map by a double natural gas explosion and fire Saturday. Ten thousand persons from Indianapolis visited the ruins Sunday. Fire immediately took possession of the debris of the explosion, and it was with great difficulty that the remaining business houses were saved from destruction. The first explosion was in the cellar of J. F. Watt’s drug store. It wrecked the building, killed two persons and injured three before aid could be extended to the injured. The I. O. O. F. building, across the street, occupied by a grocery store, was wrecked by an explosion in its basement. A crowd of men that had just rushed up to remove the stock to save it from the threatening flames across the street was mowed down and three were killed and twenty-three injured. The town was in a panic. The business portion was in flames and no one knew how soon another explosion would take place in another quarter. The fire department from Indianapolis hurried out to find the terrified people standing at a safe distance and letting the town burn up. In a little while the flames were extinguished, but not until after the bodies of some of the victims had been charred beyond recognition and much of the town destroyed. Many of the injured narrowly escaped death by fire. The force of the explosion shocked the country for miles around. No one knows the cause, but it is supposed that a conduit had been leaking into the cellars of the two buildings.