Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-11
BLOWN OUT OF EXISTENCE
TERRIBLE EXPLOSION OF 2,ooo KEGS
 OF GIANT POWDER.

The Bodies of Four Men Hurled Through
 the Air and Picked Up in Pieces--Forts
 Others Injured-KiIled by Nitro-Glycer
 inc at Bellevue, o.
 WILKEsBARRE, Pa., Feb. 1.-The whole Wyoming valley within radius of forty miles was shaken up by terrible explosion yesterday morning. It resenbled an earth quake shock in this city. Windows were rattied, lamps thrown from the nlantels, and people who were lying down sustained a shock. The cause of all the commotion was the explosion of powder magazine at Wap- wallopen, twenty-three miles from Wilkes barre. Two thousand kegs of giant powder in the storage warehouse exploded from some unknown cause.
 About sixty men were employed ill the works. Four were killed outright. They were Peter Kisbaugh, George Stout, Clean Teets and John Rossman. Their bodies were hurled 800 feet. The trunk of Kisbaugh's body was found in swamp fully 600 feet away. One leg and an arm were missing. One of the unfortunate mans legs was found on coal bank 100 feet from where the body lay. StOut's body was seen to shoot up into the air a couple of hundred feet, and was found on a roof 100 yards away. His head was missing. Teets and Rossman were also horribly mangled
 All the buildings near the powder mill were shattered, and two frame houses near by tum- bled from their foundations The occupants had a narrow escape with their lives. Every one of the fifty or more buildings that stood on the hillside above the station was wrecked. Men and women ran wildly in all directions. Some that were wounded were helped from their demolished houses to place of shelter; children cried, women moaned, men excitedly looked for missing men, sisters for their broth CTS, wives for their husbands. mothers for their sons. Wild confusion prevailed every where. Windows were broken in all the houses, the roofs torn off in some, chimneys thrown down, ill many cases crashing through the buildings; doors and partitions were thrown from their fastenings and hurled against each other with great force
 The building where the explosion took place was not large one, and was used for packing the powder in cans and preparing it for ship ment. The first indication of danger was an awful shock, a violent shaking of the ground, toppling over -of buildings, the flying of timbers iron and other debris and other mis- siles through the air, cry of agony from the wounded, shouting for help, all in a minute. Not a vestige of the packing house was left.
 About forty of the men were injured by fall ing walls and flying timbers. The names of the most seriously injured are: Silas F. Peters, Frank COrkens, c. w. Todden, Herbert Rose na.i, Jacob Mowry, Adulu Sizer, G. Miller, f. K. Schubert, W. A. Fenstermacher, N M. Schobert, John Ebert, Frank Cochran, Eckert Young, Peter Selliner and Frank Defane
 The powder mills are owned by the Dupont Powder company and are three in number tie Big Elephant, the Little Elephant and the Lower mill Besides these there are three magazines, dry house, a soda mill, grain ing house, and there was the packing house. These situated some distance apart, cov- ering altogether a radious of nearly two miles. The loss will be about s55, ,OOO It is said that the explosion was caused by fric- tion, steel nail in the slipper of one of the employees crushing the loose powder on the floor.
 CLEVELAND, Feb. 11.-Henry Johnson, of Bellevue, and George Pinckney, of Toledo. were each blown into shreds by nitro-glycer- inc at Bellevue, O., yesterday morning. The men were working on a gas well, and went to the shed forty yards away to get nitro-glycer- inc cartridges for use. There were nearly 300 in the shed. Frozen sawdust covered them, and in cutting it away with an axe cartridge was struck and everything went up. Nearly all the windows in the town of Belle vue were broken ard the house nearest the shed moved from its foundation