Boston, Massachusetts
Fireworks Emporium Fire
June
28, 1899
FLAMES AMID FIREWORKS.
Fatal Conflagration in a Boston Factory.
Lives Lost During the Discharge of Bombs and
Rockets.
The fireworks emporium of
Heyer Brothers on Sumner street,
Boston, Mass., took fire about 5 P. M. in the
evening, and by the time the flames were
extinguished five of the employes met death. Two
were badly injured by jumping and $100,000 worth
of property was destroyed.
Heyer Brothers
occupy the three upper stories of the
building and part of the ground floor,
Browning &
Co., millinery, occupying the other part of the
ground floor. The fire started in the back part
of the lower floor, among the fireworks. This
room, as well as the three floors above, was
stocked with a miscellaneous assortment of
fireworks destined for the Fourth of July trade.
There were firecrackers, large and small, bombs,
Roman candles, rockets and torpedoes, together
with a large stock of banners, flags, uniforms,
torches, etc.
The firm employed twenty or twenty-five men
and boys, and were busy with their holiday
trade. They carried a stock of $100,000 worth of
fireworks and $50,000 to $60,000 worth of fancy
goods. A large portion of the stock is ruined,
although the loss is not total. The firm is well
insured.
The discharge of the fireworks on the lower
floor gave an impetus to the flames, which the
employes were powerless to impede. What with the
bombs and the rockets, the big No. 10 forty-cent
crackers, the neighborhood was awakened by a
series of reports and detonations which
suggested the rattle of musketry, while now and
then an extra heavy bomb, exploding in a mass of
other material with a dull report, gave an idea
of light artillery firing in the distance. The
flames ate through the ceiling into the upper
floors and then ensued another series of
reports, mingled with the unmistakable sizzling
of imprisoned rockets. Through all the dense,
murky smoke poured out of windows and through
the roof, obscuring the sky for blocks around,
and giving forth the choking odor of sulphur
[sic] and powder.
Blinded by the thickening clouds of smoke,
seven unlucky employes of
Heyer Brothers were unable to
escape. They found themselves in the midst of a
running fire of discharging rockets, bombs and
crackers which shot through the limited confines
of the building, now and again striking human
targets with deadly aim. Despite the sickening
fumes of the liberated missiles,
CHARLES F. CALLAHAN and
THOMAS GAGE succeeded in groping up
the stairway to the third floor. Here they
jumped from the windows to the street. CALLAHAN
struck an awning and bounded headlong to the
pavement; his legs, his arm and his back were
broken and his clothes had been burned almost to
the skin.
CALLAHAN died an hour later at the hospital.
GAGE also jumped and fell in the middle of the
street on his head. He was fatally injured and
died almost immediately. A third employe,
WILLIAM F. BRENENSTHEIL,
escaped miraculously by crawling downstairs
through the spreading flames. His head,
shoulders and body were horribly blistered, and
his clothes were burned off almost to the skin.
His injuries, however, are not fatal.
The firemen fought the fire bravely, and the
wonder is that some of them were not burned up,
too, or at least maimed by the rattling
discharge of pent up pyrotechnics. An old man
named SMITHERS,
escaped by climbing out of the top floor window
to the coping above. Pulling himself up with the
agility of an acrobat, he moved along the dizzy
height while the spectators in the street below
held their breath in suspense. He reached the
adjoining building safely. A rocket shot out of
a top story window, and in its downward flight
landed full in the face of a woman in the
street, making a painful injury. A newspaper
artist's hat was also shot off by a stray
rocket.
Three corpses, taken from the ruins, were
lying at the Morgue, burned so terribly as to
make identification doubtful. It was believed
they were all employes. Spontaneous combustion
is said to have caused the fire, although an
attempt to connect the fateful cigarette with
the conflagration is being made. The total loss
is about $100,000, of which $10,000 is on
fireworks, $60,000 on the stock of
Browning & Co.,
and $30,000 on the building.
The Cranbury Press New Jersey 1889-06-28
Submitted & transcribed by Stu
Beitler Thank you,
Stu!
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