The Evening World

EXPLOSION
LED
TO WILD
PANIC.

Occupants of
Crowded
Business
Building
Scramble
for
Lives
After Fire Starts.

THE VICINITY SHAKEN UP.

Ambulances
Summoned
to
the Scene—Policeman Prevents Women and Men from Jumping to the Street.

Lives are supposed to have been lost in a tremendous explosion of naphtha and a resulting fire in the basement of the seven-story office and factory building at the southwest corner of Wooster and Bleecker streets to-day.

The flames followed the explosion so quickly that there was no chance for those who were in the basement to escape.

The explosion occurred in the store of W. H. Crookston & Bro., dealers in paints, oils and varnishes, who occupy the entire basement.

On the ground floor is the store of B. Waldman, manufacturer of cloaks and suits.

A little cigar store and a barber shop occupy a store in the corner of the ground floor, separated from the clothing concern by a thin partition.

Neighborhood is Crowded.

On the upper floors are many small factories employing scores of women and men, and the neighborhood is crowded with similar concerns.

The explosion shook every building in the block, broke all the windows in the lower floors of the building in which it happened, and tore up the sidewalk on the Wooster street side.

Within a few seconds flames were spouting out of the broken sidewalk twelve feet in the air, and a pall of smoke hung over the scene.

The women employed in the factories ran to the windows, and from what they saw concluded that there was no escape for them unless they got out in a hurry.

Some of them tried to jump, but cooler counsel prevailed and all the women in the building got down in safety by way of the fire escapes.

Hurt by Flying Glass.

Joseph Credo, a barber, was cut by flying glass while endeavoring to get out of the building. Joseph Devito, an employee of the paint store, who was at work on the sidewalk, was also injured.

They were treated by two ambulance surgeons who had been called to the blaze.

Three alarms were turned in and the neighborhood was full of fire apparatus, causing great confusion, the streets being already almost impassable because of the number of trucks. Inspector Harley went over from Headquarters and took charge of the police arrangements.

It was impossible to learn how much material of an explosive nature was stored in the basement, and the firemen worked in continual fear that there might be a second explosion.

The blaze feeding up on the inflammable paints in the basement was particularly stubborn, although it was confined to the building.

Policeman Kelly on the Spot.

Policeman Kelly, of the Mercer street station, was standing on the corner when the explosion occurred.

He hustled into the building, and it was due largely to him that none of the women jumped to the street.

He carried an old man down to the street from the fourth floor.

"All the women wanted to be carried out, too," says Kelly.

The elevator boy in the building was so frightened at the explosion that he let his car drop five stories, but he escaped injury.

Alfred Jessup, the barber in the building, was honing a razor at the time of the explosion.

He was blown across the shop, but was not badly hurt.

T. W. Mulford, a telephone lineman who was at work in the cigar store, was struck by broken glass and slightly hurt.

Across the street from the fire is Public School No. 125, which opened to-day for the season with 1,100 scholars.

The explosion frightened the little ones, but Principal Cronin ordered a fire drill and marched his little charges out in safety. One little girl got hysterical, but her example was not contagious.