The Daily Worker

Lives of 26 Families Endangered When 300-Gallon Boiler Exploded in 2 Tenement

SCORES ROUTED AS CELLAR FIRE SUCCEEDS BLAST
Faulty Equipment in Basement Blamed

The lives of twenty-six families, workers and their children, were imperilled early yesterday morning when a 300-gallon boiler exploded in the cellar of a six-story tenement house at 237 E. 43rd St. Beds were thrown three feet in the air, and the force of the blast shook the walls until the plaster fell off. Hundreds were forced to seek safety in the cold streets, clad only in night-clothes.

Immediately following the explosion, fire broke out in the cellar and on the lower floor, while splintered floors caved in, and plaster from the walls and ceilings collapsed. The entire lighting system of the house went dead as the fire started.

Worker Turns in Alarm.

One of the escaping workers hastily turned in a fire alarm, calling an entire fire battalion to the scene. Almost a half-hour elapsed, however, before the flames were extinguished.

A hole four feet square was torn in the floor of the flat occupied by Mrs. Emily Campbell, 55, and her son, Frank, 23. Both were thrown from their beds, injured and almost unconscious. A family in the adjoining flat was also thrown out of bed and hurt as a result of the shock.

Flee to Street.

The explosion hurled a heavy dresser in the Campbell flat against the door, and young Campbell had to pry it loose before he could come to his mother's aid.

Most of the tenants rushed to the street in their night attire, and remained, shivering from the cold, in the street until the fire had been put out. Windows throughout the building and in nearby structures were shattered. Faulty equipment in the cellar is thought to have caused the explosion of the boiler.