Cleveland, Ohio
Water Works Tunnel Explosion
July 11, 1898
CLEVELAND’S DISASTER:
Ten More Lives Lost in Constructing Water Works
Tunnel.
Explosion of Gas the Cause--- Immense Difficulty
Surrounds the Work and Men are Constantly in
Danger.
Cleveland, Ohio, July 11.- The lives of ten
men were snuffed out in the twinkling of an eye
this evening in the big water works tunnel that
is being constructed until the bottom of lake
Erie, as a result of an explosion of gas. The
following are the names of the killed:
JOHN PARKS,
foreman, 32 years old and single.
JOHN FRADEY, Italian, 22 years old
and single.
TONY BRUNETTI, Italian, 22 years old,
single.
JOHN -------, Italian, 18 years old,
single.
EMERSON SMITH, brick layer, 44 years
old, married.
JOHN MCCAULEY, 21 years old, married.
WILLIAM TUCKER, colored, 26 years
old, single.
GUS WATTS, 25 years old, wife and
several children.
FRANK CLEMENTS, married, several
children.
The tunnel is an immense affair, being
projected to extend outwards from the shore four
and a half miles. It has been under construction
for more than a year. The work is attened [sic]
with great difficulty. About six weeks ago there
was an explosion of gas in the shore end of the
big hole which killed eight men and injured a
number of others. Soon afterwards a large pocket
of quicksand was struck and work stopped for
some time.
The work was finally resumed and progressed
uneventfully until this evening when the latest
and most horrible accident came.
The explosion occurred a few minutes before 7
o’clock this evening. It is not known how it
happened for every witness is dead and the
bodies are lying where they fell 6,000 feet out
under the lake. The only man in the tunnel who
escaped death is Con
O’Donnell, the lock tender, who was
stationed 3,700 feet from shore. He says there
were ten explosions, the concussion being
something terrible, for it threw him off his
feet and for hours he was in such a dazed
condition he could scarcely remember what
happened. He finally groped his way out.
Patrick Varner
and Martin McCauley
ventured in the tunnel after the accident
occurred. They made their way to a lock 5,200
from shore, but they were overcome by gas and
fell to the floor. When they failed to return a
young man named James
Clements, son of one of the men who
was killed, who is employed as a mule driver,
went to their rescue. He found them almost
unconscious lying over a mule cart and succeeded
in helping them to a well at the shore end of
the tunnel. The would-be rescuers say that all
lights are but beyond the 5,000-foot lock and
that they could not get any further.
Fort Wayne Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN 12 Jul
1898
Transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
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