Destruction
On December 17, 1896, at approximately 1:45 am., an ammonia pipe in the icemaking department began leaking. Firefighters believed the gas mixed with grease and created an explosion resulting in a fire that consumed the equipment room in the rear of the Casino and spread to the ladies’ dressing room.
Cold temperatures decreased the water pressure for the fire department's hoses, and limited access across the wooden Schenley Bridge, which was also damaged during the incident, gave the fire too much of a head start for firefighters to have a realistic chance of battling it. The amount of heat from the blaze was strong enough to melt the glass windows of nearby Phipps Conservatory. Dense smoke and heavy poisonous ammonia fumes forced firefighters in their horse-drawn equipment to retreat from trying to save the main hall of the building resulting in the fire being declared unmanageble by Pittsburgh Fire Chief, Miles Humphries.
Read more about this topic: Schenley Park Casino
Famous quotes containing the word destruction:
“If only nature is real and if, in nature, only desire and destruction are legitimate, then, in that all humanity does not suffice to assuage the thirst for blood, the path of destruction must lead to universal annihilation.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Living substance conquers the frenzy of destruction only in the ecstasy of procreation.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“Fear not, we are of the nature of the lion, and cannot descend to the destruction of mice and such small beasts.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)