Last updated December 19, 2019
J&L Quartet Rush Into Shed to Stop Escaping Gas
Four Jones and Laughlin Employees , city police and firemen yesterday were credited with preventing a major catastrophe when fumes from ammonia gas poured over the Soho district shortly before 12:30 a.m.
Hundreds of panic stricken residents of the district flooded police and the Post-Gazette with calls and choking fumes from a ruptured safety valve at the Jones and Laughlin galvanizing plant on Second Avenue spread as far as Oakland.
The four plant maintenance men quickly donned rubber suits, gloves and oxygen masks and rushed into the shed housing and cut off the escaping gas.
They were identified as Joseph Hartmann, 42, of 30 Bly Street; his son, Robert L Hartmann, 21 of 14 Bly Street; Harry Gibbs, 32, of 404 1/2 Pike Street, Canonsburg and Dick Waters, 37 of 496 Preston Street.
2 Pct Concentration Deadly
A two percent concentration of ammonia is fatal and the shed was filled with it when the four men entered, a company spokesman said.
Meanwhile streets and bridges leading into the area were closed to traffic. Police, their eyes watering from the fumes, went from door to door warning residents to close their doors and windows and remain awake until the emergency was over.
Fire companies called to the plant sprayed water on the escaping gas.