Jersey City, New Jersey

Boltwood's Hardware Store Fire

January 26, 1891

JERSEY CITY THE SCENE OF THREE VIOLENT DEATHS.

Fire Chief Farrier Killed by an Explosion--Stoker Dinan Beheaded at a Railroad Crossing While on His Way to a Fire--An Aged Woman Probably Fatally Hurt.

Meanwhile at the fire in Grove street Chief HENRY E. FARRIER was killed by an explosion, and Fireman John McDonald was badly injured.

As engine No. 1 was returning to its house at Mercer and Barrow streets, an alarm came in from the box at Pavonia and Grove streets, fire having broken out in the hardware store of George Boltwood. The engine started up Mercer street toward the railway crossing at Railroad avenue. On the box acting as driver was Stokeman DANIEL DINAN. Behind was Engineer George Dingle. The streets were dark and the horses pretty well exhausted from their recent trip. The driver urged them forward at a high speed until they neared Railroad avenue. Here is one of the most dangerous crossings in Jersey City even in broad daylight. Dinan knew this well, and as he came to the crossing he reined in his horses and kept a sharp lookout for the watchman’s warning of approaching trains. The horrible accident which occurred in an instant later was witnessed by several persons.

They say that Flagman Bernard Lockman, who stood on the east side the street and nearest the approaching engine, waved a signal to the driver to come on. At all events Dinan whipped up his horses and started to make the crossing. His horses had barely set foot on the down track when they were caught by the locomotive of an express train. For a few moments few could tell what had happened, as the train dashed by and out of sight down the track. Then those who rushed to the spot found an overturned fire engine badly wrecked, one horse terrible mangled and the other in its death agonies. At first nothing could be seen of the driver or stoker. Further down the track in the darkness the searchers found the headless body of Driver DINAN, and fully 200 feet further on they came upon his head. The body was terrible mangled. Engineer Dingle had seen the impending accident in time to jump and save his life.

Dinan, who was 35 years of age, was married and leaves a widow and one child. He also supported his widowed mother. He had been a member of the fire department for ten years.

Mrs. Thaddeus Sneed, a young colored woman, was standing on the sidewalk to the south side of the crossing, when a piece of the iron from the wrecked fire engine struck her on the forehead. She had an infant in her arms, but the baby was uninjured. Mrs. Sneed was taken home in an ambulance.

The news of the accident at the Barrow street crossing was closely followed by the report that Fire Chief H. E. FARRIER had been killed by an explosion in Boltwood’s hardware store, at Grove Street and Pavonia avenue, to which Engine No. 1 was going. The report proved true. Boltwood’s hardware store is a four-story brick building.

Men were making preparations to leave when a terrific explosion was heard and Fireman John McDonald of Engine No. 6 came out from a cellar, his face and hands bloody and burned, and reported that Fire Chief Farrier was in the cellar. Fireman McDonald, with Fire Commissioner Brown, who had heard the explosion in his house a block or two away, rushed into the cellar. They found Fire Chief Farrier’s body lying on its back at the rear of the cellar. Life was extinct. No marks of violence were visible. It appeared that he was in the front of the cellar when the explosion occurred and was carried by its force forty feet to the rear. Fire Commissioners Brown and Conway and Fireman McDonald carried the body of the dead chief to the undertaking rooms of Coroner Boyd on Pavonia avenue, half a block away.

Fireman McDonald fainted when he reached the sidewalk, and was sent to St. Francis hospital in an ambulance. His condition is critical.

Fire Chief Farrier had served at the head of the Jersey City fire department for twenty years. He belonged to one of the best known families in the city. He leaves a wife and daughter and three sons.

The loss by the fire will not exceed $5,000, and is fully insured. Several other firemen were in the cellar at the time of the explosion and were more or less injured, by they all went home and did not report their injuries.

Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, NY 26 Jan 1891

Transcribed by Audrey.  Thank you, Audrey!

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