Detroit, MI Detroit Journal Explosion, Nov 1895

ARE BURIED IN RUINS.

EXPLOSION OF BOILERS IN BUILDING OF THE DETROIT JOURNAL CAUSES COLLAPSE OF WALLS.

WORKMEN ON EVERY FLOOR ARE HURLED TO DEATH IN THE MASSES OF DEBRIS.

FIRE BREAKS OUT -- THOSE STILL IN THE RUINS MAY BE CREMATED BEFORE RESCUED.

Terrible Catastrophe.
Detroit, Nov. 6 -- At 9 o'clock this morning the boilers in the Journal building exploded with terrific force. A section of the building forty feet wide collapsed, burying scores of people in the ruins.
The work of rescuing was at once began and four dead and several injured were quickly taken out.
Many girls and women are employed in the building. In the editorial department all are reported saved. Probably a hundred or more persons were in the wrecked building. The ruins took fire and a cloud of smoke seriously impeded the work of rescue. It is positively known that at the time of the collapse the sterotypers on the fifth floor were MICHAEL WARD, ARTHUR LYNCH, and JAMES ROSS, all of whom went down in the wreck. On the third story was the Habbin Electrotype foundry, in which were a half dozen men. On the top story is the Journal's sterotyping department with four or five men. As near as can be learned there were twenty-five to thirty at work in the building exclusive of those who may be injured on the streets. Three men and one woman were taken out helpless within three minutes. The cries of others could by heard in the ruins.
Those taken out were MARTIN MYERS, advertising solicitor, badly cut in neck and head;
R. E. FOYE, advertising solicitor, cut about head; FRANK MEINER, artist in the Calvert Lithographing company, gash in forehead. On the first floor above the boilers there were five men and boys in the mailing department. On the second floor was Hiller's book bindery with two men and about twenty women. All these were precipitated into the ruins. The fire department and volunteers at once began the work of rescue.
The work of rescue from the tangled mass of bricks, iron and timbers is slow. The fire burning at the bottom makes it probable some bodies will be cremated.

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