Alexandria Gazette

"To show the very age and body of the time."

On Tuesday night, in Philadelphia, a fluid lamp exploded in the hands of a workman in the burning fluid distillery of John W. Ryan on Washington street. The fire communicated instantly to the inflammable material in the building, and in a few minutes the entire establishment was in flames and burning with great fury. Henry Buckman, who had charge of the still, was badly burned about the face and hands. There was some thirty or forty barrels of whiskey, and between ten and fifteen barrels of turpentine in the building, and soon after the fire broke out, the flames communicated to them, causing a tremendous explosion that carried off the roof of the building bodily, and caused a great deal of alarm and consternation in the neighborhood. Fortunately the rain was falling in torrents at the time, which prevented the burning fragments from communicating the flames to other property. No person was injured by the explosion.