The Red Cloud chief., 1883-12-28
FATEpUL BtjRST.
rrightful Explosion In the Empire oh
works n, p~,t,sbursh-sx Men Injured,
Three Eataliy-Ceuse Of the Disaster.

rrightful Explosion In tne EWpire w
work. mt Ptt~tsbursh-sf Men Injured'
Three Fataliy-Csuse Of the Disaster.
r~rrrsBurGH,.P PA, Dec. ~.
At li:55 O'Clock to-day, Shne a gans Of
men in the employ of the l.mpire Oil-works
were eating their dinner i lthe boiler.shed,
a battery Of two boilers ettloded with ter.
rible force, wrecking the Beds, scattering
bricks, pieces of machinery, fragments OF
the boilers and smok.stack$ in oil direc-
tions. six men were injuteA Iii thought
two and perhaps three wi ll,ne. The names
of the injured are:
Samuel Henderson, cle9'maker, aged
twenty.cisht years and Irtried; will re-
cover.
Wesley Roup, machinis, Sked forty'nvs
years and married; prob ply fatal.
John Roup, a boy; will rea&ver.
John Lee, engineer an brennan, aged
forty years. probably fat ll.i
Emil Schmidt, foreman will recover.
William Fisher, electrician aged twenty.
eight years; recovery douhtfpl.
The works are located OBJ fhe south side
Of the Allegheny Valley Itkoad, between
the road and Butter street, and about w
yards from the railroad stfqon ut the end
Of the Sharpsburg bridge. Tffy are owned
by ID. T.. Reighard & Co., OF Ms city. The
boilers. of which there wee four in the
shed, were said to be ia s4od condition.
strong and not very old They were lie
censed to carry ninety pounds of steam,
but at the time Of the explosion were car
rying between sixty and seventy pounds.
They were in charge Of John Lee, tn. fire.
man, who was regarded as Z careful man
and one who had had considerable experi'
ence in that line Of busintsS.g
At the time Of the est,l6sion Wesley
Roup. his son Johnny an kSnuel Hender.
son were sitting with theirn scks to one OF
the batteries. The shed small and built
of rough boards, and Is L.: ated at the edge
of n steep bank leading tc the river, while
in front of it is a deep ditch between the
shed and the railroad tra.ks Il. Schmidt
the foreman of the works was sta2ding. or
n car platform across the tr4ck, while VIM
Fisher and Lee were stan hng by the door,
against the boiler TO He,d4rson and left
the shed, when the explosion occurred
The three men NEAREST thS boilers wer'
hurled out with a mss q bricks, plank
mud fragments of tron, fvpich partially
ing bricks aud hot 615hes, Vas also Lee
a lot of the debr3D wh.diI was thrown
across the track struok sohtlidt in the face
\ huge smokestack oil across the rails tw'
feei on one side of ~, while a fragmen
Of the boiler six teet4ong tell not four fee
away on the other siGo.
An alarm of fire frbn b u s. was imme
diately sounded and he engines were sool
!, on the ground. TheXWels not much need
ed, and the fireman I'D tie crowd that wa
. attracted to the placo set towork to reliev
the injured. If IN
, Wesley Roup ~wa&ttrribly burned abou
, the face and upper UT u sthe body an
' had a large cash cnt1 tn left side OF hi
o face. 1t Is thought twill 1Ict recover. H
. Johnny Ronp was Sarncdh the face an
- neck. and was cut irfoev' raj places by fly
/. Ing bricks, one cash ling irtthe side Of til
- head.
Fisher was cut in IT, 70 'ehead and In th
head in several place. besle being severe
ly burned. He complains ot an intense II
IS ternai pain and is though, t. have inhale
= the escaping steam.
Henderson was hit witt I brick in u
, back of the head and cut indy.
= Lee, the fireman, was burned seriously
e he was struck with a piec ot iron. and
also supposed to have inb ,le2 steam.
{ Schmidr, the forcman had his no.
crushed and his click cut, nut wa able
assist hos. who fayed wo q than he did.
l. There would doubtless AVE been an O.
: plosion of the second batter y of boilers an
more disastrous results he'd II not been I,
nv piSoVi'c VI uliHu OI ~ employs namt
, Chapman. As soon as thu 1xplosionl toe
y place, and while the fragr y its were yet
o the air, shooting in all objections, Cha
: man jumped upon the adjalEQng battery
boilers and relieved the saAt Z .vaive OF n
pressure upon II, otherwis. d. not improI
n plodcd.
|, As usual there is difYc .enoe of opinio
as to the cause of the eAPldSion, but Q.
perts generally agree that tbNboiiers we,
sound and that low water caused Il
trouble. There is . differenS between NJ
Reighard and Boiler Inspe,t0J Ford as to Il
. time they were last inspvcod. The Il
? spector's books contain LoSmention OF
y later inspection than Janvaty 1881. M
Rcighard asserts that the LEst inspectio
was less than "a year ago. IN support {
@ the low.water theory, IL II q ted that poI
tons Of the iron were burnt. John Lee, I'll
engineer and firemen. VITO would 10 =,
sponsible in this event, % no badly iniure
q to make q statement. The han who lei
the shed before the e~xplcs1on occurrc
states, however, that aboit flfteen minute
" before the disaster he Jaw Lee run watt
4, into the boilers. WARt =