Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1900 — NEW YORK DISASTER. [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK DISASTER.

EXPLOSIONS WRECK A LARGE BUILDING. Hundreds Are Killed or Injured by Falling Walls and Flying DebrisFlames Started by the Explosions Spread Until a Block Is Burned. Tarrant & Co.’s wholesale drug house, at the northwest corner of Warren and Greenwich streets. New York, was the scene of an awful disaster at 12:15 o’clock Monday afternoon. The entire building was .wrecked by a mysterious explosion, or series of explosions, which shook the Whole lower part of New York. Many lives are known to have been lost. Hundreds were hurt and many will die as a result of their injuries. The wrecked building caught tire and the flames spread to both sides of the street, and the fire department had a hard fight to keep the fire from spreading over an area of several blocks. Four times did the ominous sounds come from tin- building. At each explosion debris shot out into the street, flames roared out of every window aud the flying bricks and debris shattered the structure of the Sixth avenue elevated, Which passes the doofned building. There were over 200 people in the Tarrant building at the time of the explosion, and few are said to have escaped. It was said Jty spectators who saw the column of smoke, flame and debris rise about -300 feet in the air o.ver the wrecked wholesale drug house that the explosion dashed out many human lives. Human bodies were seen to fly upward and then turn and descend into the furnace-like hole in the roof. All accounts agree that the foroe of the detonations, (‘specially of the first one, which hurled the roof of the drug house high in' the air, was tei'rific enough to warrant the assumption that some powerful explosive must have "caused the damage. For blocks in the immediate vicinity of the wrecked building could be seen the evidences of the force bf the drug explosions. Windows were shattered and the sidewalks were strepn with bits of glass, bricks, clothing, etc. Wall street plainly, felt the shock of the explosions. Heavy plate-glass windows in that thoroughfare were shattered, people were hurled against the walls of buildings and the street was strewn with debris. In the Irving National Bank, opposite the Tarrant Building, the shock of the second explosion was great enough to throw all of. the clerks and officials to the floor. Thinking that their own building was about to fall, they rushed out in a mass, several being hurt in the crush. Before they left, however, the employes of the bank seized the bank’s cash and threw it into the vault, which was then securely locked. Blood was spattered on the sidewalks and walls in the vicinity of the fire, showing that many of the flying bits of glass had cut pedestrians. Little by little the police succeeded in ascertaining where the blaze was first seen. It is said that flames were first discovered issuing from the windows of the third story. Fed by the inflammable material in the Tarrant establishment, the fire spread rapidly and reached to the Irving Bank and to the two buildings immediately across the street. In the rear of the wrecked structure were several smaller buildings. These were soon in flames. So dense was the smoke by this time that the firemen seemed to be unable to direct an intelligent attack on the fire. With wonderful rapidity the fire continued to spread until the two blocks from Chambers to Warren and from ton to Greenwich streets were ablaze and apparently doomed to destruction.

The wrecked drug building was four stories high. Over 125 girls were employed in the building.