Houston, TX Daily Age Newspaper Office Explosion, Jun 1896

BOILER EXPLODES

Disaster in a Texas Newspaper Office –
Three Lives Lost

Houston, Tex., June 30 – Shortly after three o’clock Monday afternoon the boiler in the office of the Daily Age exploded, killing Engineer Henry Lyons, Miss Mattie Loeb, a stenographer in the office of W. G. Van Vleck, vice-president and general manager of the A. & T. system of the Southern Pacific railway; Edward R. Emory, telegraph operator in the same office, and seriously injuring Mr. Van Velck himself. The force of the explosion carried the entire boiler, which was of 18 horse power, fully 800 feet.

Mr. Van Velck was dictating to Miss. Loeb when the boiler crashed through the brick wall back into the rear of the building, taking everything in its way. Miss Loeb was carried nearly 20 feet from her chair and was found afterward buried under a mass of debris. She lived only about 20 minutes. Mr. Van Vleck was carried some distance also, but escaped with serious cuts on the head. In the next office, divided by a thin partition, were two telegraph operators, Edward R. Emory and Theo. G. Rice. The former was struck by the boiler and instantly killed, while his companion escaped practically unhurt. Henry Lyons, the unfortunate engineer whose carelessness probably caused the horror, was blown to pieces and literally dismembered.

Evening Bulletin, Decatur, IL 30 Jun 1896
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Transcribed by Regina. Thanks Regina!