Disaster at Pittsburg

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 15 November 1927, Page 5

Disaster at Pittsburg

NATURAL GAS TANK EXPLODES Occupied Houses Demolished MANY KILLED AND HUNDREDS FATALLY INJURED [By Cable —Press Assn. — Copyright.) (Received 15, 9.5 a.m.) Vancouver, Nov. 14. At Pittsburgh more than a score are dead and several hundred were injured this morning by the explosion of a mammoth natural gas storage tank containing 5,000,000 feet of gas.— (A. and N.Z.) 1

(Received 15, 10.35 a.m.) Vancouver, Nov. 14.

' Thirteen bodies have up to the present been recovered following the explosion but it is feared the death roll will be much higher. Many of the hundreds of injured who were rushed to the hospital are not expected to live. The explosion shattered windows through a large area of the city. Broken water mains flooded the streets and prevented the rescuers from penetrating to the place where lay most of the dead and injured. Houses adjacent to the scene of the disaster were demolished, and it is believed that many of the women and children were caught in the wreckage. „ Mothers who had left home just before the tank burst, fought the policemen and firemen who endeavoured to keep them from the danger zone, all the while screaming for their children they had left at home.

Great pieces of iron lay half submerged in the flooded streets, twisted like paper, for hundreds of feet about the wrecked tank.

Manv persons who were far from the blast were struck by missiles, and electric and telephone wires were reduced to tangled twisted debris. The wires operating the fire alarms were thrown out of order and caused numerous fire scares in addition to the panics caused by the actual outbreaks. The police are guarding the besieged hospitals but they are unable to preserve order, and the ambulances and patrol waggons only forced their way through after great difficulty. Officials are unable to estimate the number of men working at the plant at the time of the explosion. They valued the tank at £150,000. —(A. and N;Z.)

WIDE AREA AFEECTED.

(Received 15, ii.ioa.m.) New York, Nov. 14

It is known that fourteen are dead and that 500 are injured. It is believed that other bodies are buried under the wreckage of numerous homes and buildings scattered over a one-mile area.—(A. and N.Z.)