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COLLAPSED.ftnmenae Stand-Pipe of Dofl anoa lWater WorksGoes Down, Crashing th# Wall® anil Being In* th© Building—A House SweptAway and Several Per- * tons Injured*Sunday the immense stand-pipe lt;/ the Defiance, O., water works collapsed scattering* wreck and ruin on everj hand. The pipe was twenty-four feet in diameter and one hundred and forty-five feet high, and at the time of the disaster lacked hut twelve feet of being fulL Five-eighth iron had been used in the construction. Just what caused the accident is a matter of conjecture. The most plausible theory advanced is this: There was a large block of ice in the pipe about two feet thick. Although this ice had been loose, it is supposed that it became wedged in some way and thus increased the pressure, as the pumps were at work when the pipe burst. A telegraph operator named Matthews, who was on the grounds, had just made up his mind to climb to the top of the pipe and take a look at the city, but before he could reach it the pipe went down with a crash that %vas heard two miles away. The result of the outpouring of the immense body of water in the pipe was startling, and the marvel is that at least five lives Were not lost The pump house is on the banks of the Maumee river, and at least thirty feet below the base of the stand-pipe. John Killean, the engineer, and his brother, together with Kellean’s infant, were in the pump house when the mighty wave of watershot down upon them. The brickwalls of the pump house faeing the 6tand-pipe were smashed in like paste-board and the entire building deluged in a flash, but, very strangely, the two men and the baby escaped with a few scratches. On the bank above the work of destruction was even more complete. The engineer’s residence was about 100 feet away from the stand-pipe, and whenstruck by the water was crushed like an egg-shell. Mrs. John Killean and her mother, Mrs. Almeda Ohliger, were in the house, the former being dangerously injured. Mrs. Killean was found buried under the debris of the wrecked building and was only removed after cutting away much of the timber that was piled in around her. A number of trees in its track were swept away before the flood lost its force. A new house, belonging to John Howe, located abou t two hundred feet away from the pipe, was swept from its foundation and badly wrecked. The force of the water was so great that the stone masonry at the base of the pipe was cut as clear as if it had been done with a knife, while a large pile of iron pipe was scattered over the grounds like so much cord-wood.tytcarat? a riufrrTTT. tt? rarfTOTnntTTraa
Newspaper Details
Owensville Gleaner
Owensville, Indiana, US
Sat, Apr 04, 1891
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CA 20 Aug 2021
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