Rescue Workers Digging Dead and Injured Out of Ruins After Explosion

May 11, 1927

Death Made News: May 12, 1927

Hundreds of rescue workers rushed into the ruins after the explosion at Second and Forest avenues Wednesday night had wrecked a two-story brick building, killing six persons and injuring forty-one others, and formed chained lines along which pieces of wreckage were passed as the debris was cleared to uncover the dead and dying. Bodies of the dead were uncovered in a short time. Electric light wires were tapped and furnished current for a battery of flood lights that furnished light for the rescue workers.

Six persons were killed and forty-one injured, several so seriously they may die, in an explosion that wrecked the two-story brick building, northwest corner of Forest and Second avenues, South Dallas, at 8:20 o’clock Wednesday evening. The explosion is believed to have been caused by gas accumulating within the walls and throughout the structure from a leak in the gas pipes, and was so severe that it was heard all over Dallas.

The building housed the Second Avenue Pharmacy and the Sunshine Grocery on the ground floor and the Metropolis Lodge No. 378, I.O.O.F., on the second floor.

Members of Metropolis Lodge No. 378 I.O.O.F., were gathering in the lodgeroom of the second floor of the building, and the list of dead and injured includes many members of this lodge. Those in the Second Avenue Pharmacy, which occupied the lower floor corner of the building, were crushed under the mass of brick and timbers, while men on the second floor were precipitated into the mass of wreckage.

Dead and Injured.

The dead, as revealed by a final check of undertaking establishments at 1 o’clock Thursday morning, were:

• Frank Linka, 21 of 2618 South Fitzhugh Avenue.
• Mrs. Christina L. Cour, 61 of 1512 Second avenue.
• Capt. W. Henry Lee, fire station No. 4, 3908 Metropolitan street.
• W. D. (Fatty) Hill, 818 South Peak street.
• O. D. Allen, 32, of 817 South Beacon street.
• E. P. Norvell, 30, of 1821 First avenue.
• W. E. Brunson, fireman, Engine Company No. 1; lacerations about the face, daze by explosion.
• Herman Lorenz, 3222 Meadow street, right leg broken and a cut on his head, dug out from where the wall fell in on him.
• R. T. Candray, 4702 Ash Lane, broken leg, burns; taken to St. Paul Sanitarium.
• Nick V. Morgan, 2608 State street, cut on head.
• J. R. Groves, 3216 Elihu, file clerk, Texas and Pacific, bruised about head and body, possible fracture of left ankle and injuries to back.
• Assistant Fire Chief John Redmond, 2510 Jeffries street, almost buried by the building collapse as he stood in the drug store doorway.
• Ernest Thorton, 2504 Birmingham street, buried when the wall fell, head injured and chest partly crushed.
• Fred Morrow, 1300 Pecos street,, deep cut on back of head, necessitating six stitches.
• Jack Archer, 1062 Young street, fireman of Station No. 4, cut on arm by flying timber.
• Joe Parker, 2400 Forest avenue, minor bruises.
• Roy Hastings, 3417 Peabody street, minor abrasions and bruises.
• City Fireman, E. R. Coffman, face burned slightly and minor bruises.
• Mrs. R. L. Garrett, 1444 Second avenue, minor bruises from debris hurled across the street.
• James Wesley, 3115 Elberta Drive, broken rib.
• L. R. Snyder, contractor, 312 Santa Fe Building.
• Albert H. Donnell, 823 Grandview street.
• Walter Coleman
• H. L. Mayfield, fireman, Station No. 7, burned on left hand and wrist, cut on forehead, burned on wrist.
• H. D. Sanders, 2925 Peabody, minor bruises.
• Claude Allen, 25, brother of O. D. Allen, owner of drug store; burned about face and upper part of body.
• B. C. Hilton, Central fire station, 5218 Ash Lane; broken right arm and bruises on the body.
• R. H. Tresp, Engine Company No. 18; burned about head and body; serious condition.
• Brady Hicks, 3011 Forest avenue; two ribs broken.
• Ausbun Evans, 4600 Gaston avenue; cut right eye.
• Henry Todd, 1801 Exposition; face and left eye cut, bruised.
• Alton Ribble, 1506 Second avenue; minor injuries; left hospital.
• Mrs. A. K. Rowen, 3225 Forest avenue; not dangeroulsy injured.
• S. L. Brown, 5421 Gleander; broken leg and burns.
• G. A. Lindsey, Federal Reserve Bank employee.
• John W. Boyd, 2827 Williams street; minor injuries.
• J. L. Roberts, 2418 Third avenue; captain of Engine company No. 1; minor injuries.
• J. E. Dobbs, 1419 Romaine street, minor injuries.
• Silas Coleman, Grand Prairie, dairyman; minor injuries.
• O. F. Logan, 3800 Carpenter, head of lodge;slight injuries.
• Miss. Winnie Bennett, 3710 Jamaica street; burns and possibly other injuries.
• C. F. Spradley, 2624 Pennsylvania avenue; burned back and severe head injuries.
• A. D. Brantley, 1922 Euclid street, fireman, Central station; burns about legs and hips and cuts about face and shoulders.
• George Curtis, 626 Cristler avenue, filling station employee; slight injuries.
• E. R. Brown, Woodard and Elva avenues, Urbandale; severe burns, one eye injured.
• Gus Chambers, fireman, 5419 East Grand avenue; cuts about the body.
• Judson Woraids, black male, 4563 Jamaica street; cuts.

Several firemen who had been called to extinguish a gas fire that had been discovered a few minutes before the explosion were also among the list of dead and injured.

At least a thousand volunteer workers hurried into the smoking ruins immediately after the explosion and forming lines, passed timbers and other debris to the street as they cleared the interior of the building to uncover the dead and rescue the injured.

About fifteen members of the Odd Fellows Lodge, which had its meeting rooms on the second floor of the two-story brick structure, were about to start the initiation program of the evening, when members felt heat in the lodge-rooms and detected the odor of smoke.