Fire In The National Capitol

Washington, Nov. 7. - An explosion and fire at 5:15 yesterday afternoon wrecked the supreme court room and the rooms immediately adjoining it on the main floor of the Capitol. The damage is enormous. The entire central - eastern part of the great marble pile from the main floor to the subterranean basement practically is a mass of ruins. The force of the explosion was so heavy that the coping stones on the outer walls, just east of the point where the explosion occurred, were bulged out nearly two inches; windows in all that part of the building were blown out, and locked doors were forced from their hinges quite 150 feet from the scene of it. Fire followed the explosion so quickly as to seem practically simultaneous with it. The explosion shook the large structure to its foundations, and was heard several squares from the Capitol. It occurred in a small room tightly enclosed by heavy stone walls in the subterranean basement immediately below the main entrance to the old building.

In this room was a 500-light gas meter which was fed by a four-inch main. Very little gas is used in that part of the building, but at the time of the explosion the gas had not been turned off at the meter. The meter itself was wrecked and the gas pouring from the main caught fire. The flames originating from the explosion darted up the shaft of the elevator, which had been completely destroyed by the force of the explosion, and communicated with the record room of the supreme court, the office of the marshal of the court and the supreme court library.

Before the flames could be subdued the priceless documents in the record room had been almost totally destroyed, and serious damage had been done in the marshal's office and some minor rooms in the immediate vicinity. The library of the supreme court, located immediately beneath the supreme court room, was badly damaged by fire, smoke and water, practically destroying the great collection of law reference books. The library contains about 20,000 volumes. Librarian Clarke, after a cursory examination, expressed the opinion that many of the books could be saved, although they had been drenched by water from the streams poured into the library for two hours or more after the explosion occurred.