Falling Dirigible Causes Loss of Life

Falling Dirigible Causes Loss of Life

Eleven persons were killed outright and twenty-seven were injured in Chicago, Ill., when the dirigible balloon, “Wing Fool,” assembled for test and exhibition purposes, caught lire while flying above the Loop business district and plunged 1,200 feet in a blazing mass through the glass roof of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, at the corner of La Salle Street and Jackson Boulevard. Most of the dead were employees of the bank, who were trapped in the building and perished in a rain of fire caused by the explosion of the balloon’s gasoline tanks as they hit the floor of the rotunda, where more than 200 bookkeepers and clerks, nearly all women, were working. Four of the balloon’s five occupants jumped with parachutes. Two of these landed safely in the street as the “blimp” struck the roof of the bank with a crash audible throughout the Loop district. It seemed, according to the survivors, that the entire bank was instantly on fire. Breaking through the iron supports holding the glass overhead, the fuselage of the balloon, with two heavy rotary engines and several gasoline tanks, smashed to the floor. The tanks exploded, scattering a wave of flaming gasoline over the workers within a radius of fifty feet, and a panic ensued. The intense heat made rescue work impossible until after the fire department arrived. It was thirty minutes before the bodies under the fuselage could be dragged out. They were burned almost beyond recognition. None of the survivors of the balloon’s crew could ascribe a definite cause for the fire. Two theories were offered. One was that a spark from the rotary motors set the gas afire. The other was that the balloon was overcharged and that the sun’s rays caused it to expand and burst, the fire following the contact of the gas with sparks in the motors. The extent of the damage to the bank through the burning of its records is not officially stated. It was said by an official that a package of $50,000 in government bonds was burned. Cashiers and tellers returned with the firemen later to lock up hundreds of thousands of dollars in currency in the huge vaults, which were untouched by the blaze. Four hours after the explosion firemen had cleared away the debris and carpenters were building benches and desks. Six policemen stood guard over the vault during the night. More than $100,000,000 was said to be inside of it. The destroyed balloon was valued at $100,000.

More than 20,000 barrels of oil were destroyed by fire when lightning struck the containing lank at the Nedsky pumping station at Ingomar, Pa., recently. A wall of earth built by volunteers prevented the blaze from spreading to ten other tanks containing 200,000 barrels of oil. Flaming oil was scattered over the countryside, destroying everything with which it came in contact, including two buildings of the National Transit Pipe Line Company, which owned the tank.