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Show SCREAMING OF 1 FIRE VICTIMS I HEARD BLOCKS Police Declare Gases Caused Explosion in Illicit Distillery FLAMES TRAP MANY Fire Chief Dashes Into In-; In-; ferno and Saves Trapped Children ! CHICAGO. Nov. 17. Joseph Vc.-donl Vc.-donl was under police guard ln a hospital hos-pital today and may be charged with manslaughter as thc result of an ex- 3m u plosion which killed his wife and baby aim ,i daughter and a neighbor's home and Injured nine others IncludlnT Vm-- , j.,, donl Thursday night Tho police today to-day attributed the explosion to fciM accumulated ln connection with two Wj moonshine stills In the basement un-,der un-,der the Verdonl store A theory that ! a bomb possibly had wrecked tho : i ill. ling, causing a fire, was abandon- 'ijjR d by the police. MOTHER AND Cnil.D DEAD. The ground floor of the building lu lTT ' which the distillery was located was occupieu Dy a grocery store anu in... living quarters of tho man who owned j.;,' j it Joseph H. Verdonl, and his family. fam-ily. Verdonl Is In hospital suffering from severe burns. His wife, Paulliui. 35, and her 15 months' oid baby, were burned to death Firemen found th iijtj, bodies with the child clasped in Its flH mother's arms. Steve Bottino. 11, one of the six chilren of Joseph Bottino, who lived on tho second floor, died in a hospital hos-pital Immediately after the explosion flair, s enveloped tho building, trapping trap-ping tho occupants. Screams wers heard for blocks. FIREMEN SOON BUSY. Fumes from the stills fed the flames. The floor of thc grocery fell ln wll h the explosion. Firemen reached the B one in a few minutes but hesitated to throw strong streams of water lnf.i the building, lor fear of further endangering en-dangering the trapped occupants. Donning a gas mask and ordering none but his chauffeur, Charles Pratt, to follow. Frank Braband battalion j chief, plunged Into the flames with it'ij Bratt at his hoels. Firemen feared for their chief when I h.j ; he failed to reappear ln a few minutes, min-utes, and were on the point of dls obeying his order by an attempt to. follow. RESCUES CHILDREN Suddonlv Braband burst through the outside, a child under each arm, ('!: he turned back and soon brought another an-other Injured child out. Bratt rescued res-cued several others. No attempt was made to save the I building while the rescue work was ' going on and an adjoining building build-ing was soon in flames Although they believed all the oc-rupants oc-rupants ''ad hen ac-ount'-d tor early todaj police and firemen searched the ruins for other bodies. Mrs. Bottano saved her baby. Josephine, Jo-sephine, from serious Injury when sh rushed to a window, ;ind dropped tho i hlld Into the arms of a fireman. Verdonl was placed under arrest at IMm the hospital today. Police said they )BW believed the grocery he conducted was i-lflfl only a blind for the illegal distillery Ljjjj In th'. basement. rt ri I 1 |