2-888-011 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Explosion of a Steam-Boiler in Hague-Street, New York, 1850. Scene showing the '...explosion of a boiler of a steam-engine in a machine shop, crushing the building...into a vast mass of ruins in less than one minute. About fifty persons, it is said, were killed and sixty wounded, by this awful catastrophe, the building being occupied by several workmen... the whole building, which was six stories in height, was actually lifted from its foundation to a height of six feet and, when it reached that elevation, it tumbled down, crushing in its ruins a vast number...Immediately after the explosion, fire burst from the promiscuous heap of bricks and beams, and human bodies were seen with legs and arms sticking out - some of them dead, some living. The fire alarm for the district was first given, and then a general alarm, which brought the firemen from all parts of the city to the scene of desolation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.