Kansas City, Missouri, USA
1925 - EXPLOSION AND FIRE WRECK KANSAS CITY PLAY HOUSE; NUMBER OF DEAD UNKNOWN. HUNDRED PEOPLE IN THEATER AT TIME OF DISASTER, BUT DEATH LIST CANNOT BE DETERMINED UNTIL SEARCH OF RUINS IS MADE; EXPLOSION BELIEVED DUE TO GAS LEAKAGE.

Kansas City, Mo. - (AP) - Firemen and an army of workers from the street department Friday began searching the smoldering ruins of the Gillis theater for bodies of persons believed to have lost their lives when a fire and an explosion wrecked the theater and more than a dozen stores here late Thursday night.

Several hours after the search of the debris started no bodies had been recovered. The only known death to result from the catastrophe was that of JOHN HOGAN, fireman, who was killed while enroute to the scene when a fire truck overturned.

ALEXANDER HENDERSON, fire chief, after a survey of the situation, said he believed that not more than six or eight bodies would be found and perhaps not that many.

A cook in a restaurant adjoining the theater, which was entirely demolished, is the only one police know of to be unaccounted for. It was estimated that approximately a hundred persons were in the show-house at the time of the blast. How many of them escaped was not known.

The exact cause of the explosion is undetermined. Police believe the blast occurred, however, in a restaurant located in the Gillis building from escaping gas.

Fire Chief HENDERSON estimated that it would require at least two days to clear away the wreckage.

Early Friday firemen had organized a volunteer party of 100 men to search the smouldering wreckage for bodies.

The explosion came with startling swiftness at 11 o'clock. Flames enveloped the structure almost immediately following the blast and the roof and the follors of the adjacent building, constructed 42 years ago as the city's finest play-house, collapsed.

Those who were able to make their way out of the building did so almost miraculously, according to eye witnesses.

Exits of the theater, which were located on the second floor, were few. There was the main entrance and a rear exit behind the state.
Stories gathered from survivors indicated the front exit must have been cut off by the collapse of the theater floor. But none of those who reached safety by that avenue could tell clearly how he got out.
Fire Chief ALEXANDER HENDERSON said 30 or 35 persons must have been trapped in the building, basing his opinion on the fact that it would have been impossible for all to escape in the short interval between the explosion and the collapse of the roof.

The midnight show had just started and a love scene was playing on the screen when the blast rocked the building, bringing down the balcony as the floor gave way, according to survivors.

Thirty minutes after the explosion the south wall of the theater fell, crushing several small stores.

A negro porter in a restaurant on the ground floor of the building said that half an hour before the explosion he detected gas fumes in the basement.

LaCrosse Tribune
La Crosse, Wisconsin
June 26, 1925

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