SHOE FACTORY HORROR.
Nearly One Hundred Killed by a Boiler Explosion.Brockton, Mass.-The list of dead in the explosion in the R. B. Grover & Cc. shoe factory Monday morning may reach 100. Sixty bodies have been recorded so far and seventy-five additional operatives are unaccounted for. Few of the bodies have been identified, as most of those recovered cannot be recognized. Thirty-six persons were injured, many of them, it is believed, mortally. It is believed nearlyall of those reported missing will be found to have perished in the building. The work of removing the bodies has been going on all night.
When the boiler exploded it passed upward almost perpendicularly, tearing a passage as it went, killing many on the way. After rising high in the air it descended half the distance and then, swerving northerly, cut its way like a huge projectile through a dwelling house fifty feet away and pierced another dwelling further along.
Scenes of horror followed the wrenching8 apart of the factory building. In the rear the three upper floors weighted as they were with heavy machinery, collapsed with a crash that was heard for blocks. Men and women working in departments of this section who were busy at their machines had time only to turn in an attempt to flee after the first dull roar when the flooring sank beneath them and they were carried to the ground floor crushed and bruised amid the mass of debris. Many fell into a veritable fiery furnace.
In the sections of the factory which remained standing the operatives were panic stricken as they sought to escape. Many fled down the stairway and reached the street, others ran to the windows, the fire escapes in many cases having been torn away by the explosion. In desperation many jumped from the second and third story windows to the ground and were dangerously injured. The crush 1on the stairways resulted in numerous minor injuries.
Scarcely had the rear portion of the structure collapsed when the flames started up from the boiler pit and communicated with the splinters of the wreckage and immediately afterward with the standing walls. Soon the entire story was in flames.
Many acts of sacrifice and heroism were seen. One man whose legs were caught under an iron beam cried to the rescuers that they could not extricate him and to help the girls behind him. Stretching out his arms he lifted several girls one by one and passed them to the rescuers. Then the fire reached him and he died. A woman who was entangled in a shoe machine cried out that she was dying and commanded the rescuers to attend to others who might live. She begged to be shot. Soon the flames enveloped her. Among the first to arrive on the scene was the Rev. James O'Rouke, curate at St. Margaret's Roman Catholic church. At the risk of his life he removed seven persons from the ruin before the fire had reached them and was returning for the eighth when he fainted. Father O'Rourke administered the last rites of the church to many Catholics, both to those who were saved and some who later perished.
Mayor Edward H. Keith personally superintended15 the search. Treasurer G. C. Weston of the Grover company estimated the loss on the factory at $200,000 and the loss on the other burned structures was placed at about $50,000. The Grover factory, machinery and stock were insured for $200,000.
