The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-08-31
Lightning Strikes a Powder
Magazine,
AND DOES DESTRUCTIVE WORK.
Property Ruined on All Bands;
Several People Killed and Many
Seriously Injured.
LIehtniDg's Destructive work.


longing TO the Latin & Rand Powder
Company, was struck by lightning. An
explosion followed which DESTROYED
property valued at SIS. 90. besides killing
one person almost instantly, fatally in
juTing four, and contributing painful
injuries to nearly twenty-five others.
The dead and fatally injured are Miss
Carrie Ahrenwerth. killed instantly /;
Peter Kenn, farmer. ribs broken and
feartully burned; John Guhl, teamster
for the Oriental Powder Company. ribs
fractured, right leg broken in two
places, interval wounds; Mrs. Guhl,
skull crushed; Mrs. Ellie Deylne, right
leg crushed to jelly, breast transfixed
BY strip of glass. The shock caved in
two magazines of the Oriental Powder
Compsn, and also those be-
longing to the Warren Powder
Company, the Hazard Dupont Com
pany's, and the Forcite dynamite.
The storehouse of the Latin & Rand
Company's is the only one which ex-
ploded. Where il stood there Is now an
immense excavation nearly = feet in
depth.
The combined efforts of a hard
fought battle with 8 cyclone and the
whitening influences Of lightning could
{ have presented a picture OF more
abject desolation and destruction than
did the country for half a nile in all
directions from the exploded magazine.
The day had opened gloomily. at s
O'Clock rain began falling furiously from
immense banks of clouds; flashes
OF lightning were soon chasing each
other across the whole armament until
the heavens seemed ablaze. The thun-
der was deafening About 9.I5 a flash
which all agree was much brighter than
tsose preceding L. was followed by a
report that shook the greater part of
Cook county. II was q sharp report,
but strange 10 saw, by most of those
who lived in the vicinity of the explosion
II was ha dly distinguished from
series OF thunder claps which had been
the order of the morning. There was q
tremendous shaking of the earth. Ar
ticles Of furniture not stationary were
thrown about ROOMS as If they were
piaythings in giants power. Men, wo-
men and children were tossed around at
the VIII OF the terrible, resistless force
released by the explosion. The scene
OF the catastrophe is about two miles
from the extreme southwestern edge of
the CITY, near where Archer Avenue
settles Gown INTO a conventional coun-
try highway. On one side the wave of
great nelds of ripening corr. on the
other broad stretch of prairie runs Tor
nearly mile IN all directions. On this !
one, or rather, there were a dozen plain |
but StroDgly-built houses, with walls of !
yellow brick, roofs of slate aud strong |
iron doors. These houses were maya
zines, In which the bulk of the powder |
supply for Chicago and the territory de- |
pendent upon II was stored. Right In the \
midst OF the magazines rose the 1
home OF ~. J. TierneY, police magistrate
OF the town of Lake, in the limits OF /
which the corporation warehouses
stood. The house was, until today. an
attractive looking home, two stories
high, with spacious veranda in front
and surrounded by q number of sub
'tanual outhouses. It overlooked the
Archer road, about forty feet away.
hree hundred feet northeast of the
IleFney residence was g little cottage
udely built and surrounded by ruder
heds, stables and hog pens. The mag
zine Of the Latin & Rand Powder
company was one Of the largest of a
lozen structures in the neighbor-
lood, II was a substantial brick
louse seventy BY thirty feet dimensions,
NTH slate roof and an iron door of
reat strength. The magazine was 800
eet east of the cottage of John Guhland
nd 200 feet from e residence of Mr. /,
'ierney. When the rain began 10 fall !
q the morning people in the vicinity ]
Tere all indoors, many of them pro-
onging their Saturday nights rest. An II
ccasional wagon passing along Archer i.
load was about the only sign of life
indoors. Just preceding the explo- !
Ion. long. vivid fame seemed to burst ;
rom cloud directly over the Latin & !
and magazine. In an instant the air
as hlied with flying missiles; masses
brick aud cay. sheets of tin,
er performed Understandable eyrations /
Of feet in the air, some falling q
acK close to the points from which, {
ley started, while others shot off I
trough space with frightful yeiocirv
My conforming TO the laws Of gravity
ter long fight. Stones weighing
ON one to $50 pounds were thrown
10 fields two miles from the scene 7;
rees were stripped of their foliage :
noes by the nile we're laid low. teIe. Z
-aPh wires snapped like frazile threads 81
"a the prairie bore seams as IL Of v
Io1sand steam plows. Not building K
thin a mile Of the explosion escape5 d
image. The little cottage of John 4
uni, with Its surrounding ont q
buses, was laid low without warn "
g. and IN a moment parts of the al
2loded warehouse began falling :
! the debris Of the cottage. GuhI's :
nily consisted Of himself, his wife and
Irrie Ahrenwerth, II years Of age
he latter was instantly killed, while
lhl and wife we're dragged from the
ins frightfElly mutiiated. Their
rses, COW and swine were all killed
theeoncus sionksand the bodies Lioyn +
! OF dirt, sand and powder. The Z
ms Of Guhls house immediately took +
e and the fragments burned out dur Z
, the day. The body Of Carrie Ahren- +
rth presented . sickening spectacle. X
III the fAce-was torn away, the ewes Il
re almost blown from the sockets Ii
d there vas gaping hole in the fore
ad large enough to receive 4 mans
: The girls left arm was torn from 4
. shoulder. The body was removed !
the home Of her uncle, August +
renwerth, on California Avenue. X
he exploded magazine contained, IL II
stimated, 10000 pounds OF powder Z
half Is much dynamite. In the I
shboring ten storehouses was 500 4
pounds Of dynamite and twice as Er
CD powder Not one OF the eleven III