Eyewitness 1927: Big bang hammers North Side hard
-
This house on Fulton Street was among those damaged in a fatal North Side gas tank explosion in 1927.
Share with others:
North Side barber Joseph Sharp said "buildings just seemed to fold up" on the morning of Nov. 14, 1927.
"Dense clouds of black smoke [were] sweeping through the streets," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the next day. "Giant pieces of steel [were] crashing through houses and factories."
The cause of the destruction was a natural gas explosion that propelled a 20-story-tall storage tank into the air, where it blew up above Reedsdale Street. Hunks of steel smashed buildings while concussion from the blast broke windows for several miles around. In photos taken the day of the disaster, parts of the North Side neighborhood resemble Berlin in 1945.
The final death toll was 28 in what the Post-Gazette said was the first-ever fatal accident involving one of the giant tanks. Hundreds of Pittsburghers were injured by flying glass and falling debris.
PG VIDEOWorkmen using an acetylene torch to fix a leak, in what was thought to be an empty tank, are believed to have caused the explosion. Members of the repair crew were among those killed in the blast and fire. Many other victims were found next door in the ruins of the Pittsburgh Clay Pot Co.
The tank was one of three owned by Equitable Gas Co. that stood near the banks of the Ohio River. The Rivers Casino now occupies the site.
"The floor seemed to lift and I was thrown into the yard," Louise Chamay, who lived on Reedsdale Street, told a Post-Gazette reporter. "When I got to my feet, everything was black. Everybody ... was running and screaming and then I fainted."
"I had just entered my barber shop when the explosion came," Joseph Sharp said. "The ceiling bulged a bit and dropped just as I reached the front door. Two adjoining buildings swayed a bit and then seemed to fold up. Then everything got black."
First Published November 13, 2011 12:00 am
