Lessons learned while natural gas lines were installed in Webb City

Webb City Register, Sept. 2, 1905

The most exciting event of the day in this city, was a gas explosion on Daugherty Street, between Pennsylvania Avenue and Ball Street, this forenoon, where one of the gas line men, was employed in tapping the main line, to pipe Geo. Taylor’s residence. He had just drilled the hole in the line and reached up to secure a nut to place on the main line pipe, to await the men, who place the pipe into the residences and attach to the main line.

A small boy with the usual inquisitiveness of lads of his age, had been an interested spectator of the drilling and was very curious to know what the sizzling sound was he could hear coming from the hole in the pipe. In order to find out for himself, as the man turned his back to him for the nut, the youngster struck a match and threw it into the hole.

Instantly the flames shot up several feet in the air and with a roar that startled the young man nearly out of his wits. He took to his heels toward the Frisco depot and has not been seen or heard from since.

The fire burned one of the heavy posts of the Electric Railway company on the south side of the street. The men who had gathered there secured buckets and extinguished the flames before any serious damage was done. The flow of gas was shut off from headquarters but it burned some time before finally extinguished.

The young man of the inquisitive turn had perhaps learned a lesson. The gas workman was severely burned on one of his hands and his face was a little scorched, but it did not interfere with his duties the balance of the day.

This ad was placed in the Webb City Register in 1905.