1962 — Oct 3, Boiler Explosion, NY Telephone Company building, Manhattan, NY — 23

–23 Bunyan. All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. 1999, p. 295.
–23 Nash. Darkest Hours. “Major Avalanches and Landslides,” 1977, p. 661.
–23 New York Times. “Boiler-Blast Suit Asks $8.2 Million.” 7-15-1964.
–21 Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “Steam Boiler Explosion Kills At Least 21…,” 10/4/62, 1.

Narrative Information

Bunyan: “New York Telephone Company Office – This building was the scene of a large explosion on October 3, 1962. At 12:07 p.m., the beginning of the lunch hour, a steam boiler weighing more than a ton blasted through a basement wall in the company’s cafeteria. The boiler rocketed across the room, which was filled with employees. Twenty-three people were killed, and scores were injured.” (Bunyan. All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts…. 1999, p.295.)

Newspapers

Oct 4, AP: “New York (AP) — It was 12:06 p.m. The basement lunchroom of the New York Telephone Co.’s uptown Manhattan building was filled with about 100 employees, most of them young women. The air was filled with pleasant chatter and feminine laughter. The minute hand edged toward 12:07. At that moment, a massive steam boiler weighing more than a ton erupted into the lunchroom with the force of a jet-propelled projectile and smashed its way up through the ceiling to the first floor, bounced back into the lunchroom and rocketed through an opposite wall. It destroyed or killed or maimed everything in its path. Steam, smoke and flames filled the basement. Overturned desks, cabinets and broken bodies fell through the gaping hole in the ceiling to add to the carnage below. For perhaps 30 seconds after the blast there was a stunned silence. Then a lonely cry pierced the choking air: ‘My God, my God.’

“The time was 12:08 p.m. At least 21 persons were killed. At least 100 others were injured. Most of them were women. Area hospitals set up emergency facilities. Doctors came from far and near to care for the injured. Transit employees working nearby and others from every walk of life aided police and firemen in rescue operations. Clergymen of various faiths came to minister to the dead and the dying. These littered the sidewalk in grotesque postures of death and made the normally bustling area around the building at 213th Street and Broadway look like a war-torn battlefield.

“Dazed survivors and relatives and friends of employees in the building stood by and waited for news of their loved ones. Others moved to a makeshift morgue nearby.

“The boiler that caused the disaster — one of three oil-burning boilers in the two-story building had been cleaned last week and placed back into service less than an hour before the tragedy. Police said the boiler room supervisor, Anthony McCann, 31, of Dumont, N.J., whose duties did
not require constant attendance to the boilers, had left the building to cash a check only 10 minutes before the blast.

“The city fire and building departments and the New York County district attorney’s office began
immediate investigations. The responsibility for safety checks of boilers lies with both the fire and building departments. The district attorney’s office was looking into the possibility of criminal negligence, a spokesman said.

“Fire Commissioner Edward Thompson expressed the opinion that the boiler blew because it was superheated, due probably to a failure of the automatic devices which regulate the high and low water level ‘or failure to maintain a proper water level.’

“When disaster struck, those still able to move stumbled past rubble, overturned tables and bodies and groped for exits. Blinded by smoke and steam and covered with dust and dirt, they formed human chains an led one another out of the shattered building.

“Fires broke out, but most of the destruction was caused by the blast itself. Hours after the explosion, the basement was still filled with thick smoke. Since it was possible that still more bodies lay under piles of desks, beams and cinder blocks, firemen continued the search into the night.

“Telephone company officials set up a table and made a roll-call of the employees. Women sat on
chairs or leaned against parked cars, shaking with fright or staring with shock.” (Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “Steam Boiler Explosion Kills At Least 21…,” 10-4-1962, p. 1.)

Oct 4, AP: “New York (AP) – They had all seen it in the movies — the sudden blast tearing through the building, tossing the bodies about and piling the debris upon them. They had seen it, but they knew it couldn’t happen here. Not in the telephone company building way uptown, where the girls were quietly doing their jobs or chatting over their paper-bag lunches in the basement cafeteria Wednesday.

“But suddenly it did happen here, and moments later 18 people were bodies among the debris, and more were dying, and still more were screaming in pain. ‘I was talking on the telephone to a customer when my ears began aching from a terrific sound,’ said Alice Paul. ‘I saw the walls go down. The ceiling toppled. I was rooted to the floor from shock. When I woke up the place was full of steam. I grabbed onto something and then followed what I think was the wall to the exit.’ ‘The walls cracked,’ said Mrs. Gloria Salour. ‘We heard wild cries and the door jammed and we were unable to open it. We thought it was the end.’ ‘It was like a hurricane,’ said Diane Gerstel. ‘There was a terrific gush of steam. You couldn’t see anything. People screamed…I cried, ‘My God, what has happened?’ ‘It was terrible,’ said rescuer Francis Holland. ‘We started pulling people out of it. We pulled two women out, then we were forced back by the extreme heat and steam. We could hear people screaming ‘help me, help me’ but we couldn’t see where they were. We could see some tables lying on bodies, but they appeared to be mangled and dead. . .I’ll never forget it. I can still hear those screams.’” (Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “View of Horror,” 10-4-1962, p. 1.)

July 15, 1964, NYT: “A damage suit for $8.2 million has been brought against 10 companies for the boiler explosion on Oct. 3, 1962, in a New York Telephone Company building in upper Manhattan that killed 23 persons and injured 94.

“Details of the suit became known yesterday when Harry H. Lipsig, the lawyer representing 10 plaintiffs, petitioned the State Supreme Court to add another defendant to the action.

“Three weeks after the accident at the telephone company’s commercial building at Broadway and 213th Street, the Department of Buildings said that an extraordinary series of failures of safety devices and error of judgement had led to the explosion.

“The plaintiffs in the single suit were six of those injured and the relatives of four who died. Mr. Lipsig said in a brief that ‘it would be in the interest of justice to have the issues determined in one action and to avoid a multiplicity of suits and burden upon the court.’ It was understood that additional damage suits would be filed, and it was believed probable that other individual suits were already pending.

“Despite a city report that cited ‘improper and inadequate maintenance of this boiler by telephone company personnel,’ employees who were injured in the accident or relatives of those killed are barred by state law from suing the company. Under the Workman’s Compensation Law injured employees can receive benefits but are prohibited from bringing legal action. It is for that reason the Mr. Lipsig is suing the 10 companies and not the telephone company. The lawyer will thus have the legal burden of extending blame for the accident to the companies that ‘manufactured, distributed, sold, delivered and installed and/or inspected and maintained’ the boiler.

“The 10 plaintiffs in the suit are now receiving weekly compensation, depending on the extent of their injuries.

“Some lawyers have been critical of the Compensation Law’s prohibition against suing an employer. They have maintained that employers have a blanket protection against legal action under the law in cases where their negligence may be beyond doubt. They also contend that it is not equitable for an employee who might be maimed for life to be limited to receiving benefits as low as $50 or $60 a week, depending on his salary at the time of the accident….” (New York Times. “Boiler-Blast Suit Asks $8.2 Million.” 7-15-1964, p. 28.)

Sources

Bunyan, Patrick. All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities. Fordham University Press, 1999. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZJfrHHEA7xQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

New York Times. “Boiler-Blast Suit Asks $8.2 Million.” 7-15-1964, p. 28. Accessed 9-29-2022 at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1964/07/15/97339880.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “Steam Boiler Explosion Kills At Least 21…” 10-4-1962, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=135557278

Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “View of Horror,” 10-4-1962, p. 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com