The Dickinson press., 1889-09-14
AWFUL LOSS OF LIFE.
Over 300 People Killed and 500
Injured by an Explosion in
an Antwerp Factory.
One Hundred and Thirty Bodies and
an Immense Pile Of Human Frag.
ments Gathered Up.
The Scene That Ensues Beyond Parallel
In History, Except In the Big
Chicago Fire.

vi S"ililuScS cAllOucu T1Audy al tAi
cartridge warehouse of NJ. Corvilain, de
molishing The building and setting
large petroleum factory adjoining atire
The warehouses were in the vicinity O
the Bourse and the
Loss Of Life Was Terrible.
How many were killed will never bt
known, rs many bodies were blown into
fragments. One hundred and thirty
corpses were gathered in the morgus, anc
All immense pile of mangled and undis
tinguishable remains. At the moment OF
the explosion and the outbreak
Of the fire many workmen on the docks
jumped into the Scheldt and were
drowned. 1t is estimated that 2,O0(
tons of cartridges exploded. The report
Of the explosion was heard thirty miles
and the volume of smoke arising ex.
ceeded that Of any of Europe's greatest
battles. Heads, legs, arms and other
fragments of human bodies were found
half Il mile distant from the scene of the
explosion.
40 WHOLE CORPSES
were taken to the morgue and charred
heaps of human flesh and bones, repre-
.enting al unknown quantity of human
ity, are also piled in the dead houses.
H CATASTROPHE
took place in a powder magazine belong
ing to NJ. Corvilain, a merchant who had
recently purchased 40, 900, 900 of old
cartridges, intending to sell the powder.
His work people. over 100 in number.
more than half of them being women.
were occupied in the task of opening
these cartridges when the explosion took
place. To what it was due. there is very
little hope of discovering, for of VI. Cor
villains employees
NOT ONE HAS BEEN FOUND ALIVE.
in fact not a single corpse has been
found intact. 1t was not only in the
factory that lives were lost. a
large number of persons were also more
or less severely wounded by pieces of
glass, and the roofs of several houses
fell in. For a great distance all around
was strewn with cartridges and debris of
all kinds. A few minutes after the ex-
a vast sheet of flame leaped into
the sky, and it was seen that a petroleum
warehouse, not far from the magazine
was on fire. Even in broad daylight,
the blaze Of 40, 900 barrels of petroleum
fire was
VISIBLE AT BRUSSELS,
distance of over thirty miles. Then
Maison lIydraulique, of Antwerp, which
furnishes the motive power for all the
and other machines of the port,
suddenly gave way and became a heap
of ruins. In the streets everywhere were
wounded persons, and at frequent inter-
walls II came across parts of the human
such as legs and arms. The spec
is terribly superb, and nothing
in recent history can compare with
il, save the scene which Paris pre-
sented during the last days of the Com
lnune, and the gpeat fire in Chicago.
The continuous noise of exploding bar
rels of oil and falling ruins OF buildings,
with the roaring and cracking
Of the flames, exactly resembled the
sound of a fiercely contested battle. The
banks, out of the reach of the
are covered with men, women,
and children who,
RENDERED DESTITUTE n HOMELESS,
IRE camping out and taking most des-
perate chances of obtaining food. The
efforts of the iiremen were greatly inn
pedcd by the scarcity of water, resulting
the destruction by fire of three.
of the entire system of water
which we're of comparatively re-
cent construction and cost $40O,O 600.
1t vas not until Sunday that the
efforts of the tiremen to subdue the
flames were of any avail. The losses of
property resulting from the explosion
are appalling. The petroleum stores
were all destroyed. The sheds used in
the oil were consumed. The
hydraulic pumps and all the buildings
in the district were destroyed. Oil tank
after oil tank exploded and all are
in the ruins. a dense mass of
smoke still rises from the burned quar-
ter and hangs like a pail over the whole
city. The flames have, however, been
subdued and the efforts of the firemen
and the troops to prevent their spread
have been successful. The ruins of the
buildings are still too hot to
admit of much effective work toward
recovering the bodies of the dead, but
enough has been gathered by the
explorers among the smoking ruins to
make it certain that the death list
WILL 0 FALL SHORT OF 200,
if, indeed, it does not largely exceed
that number.
SCORES OF VESSELS SUNK.
The Storm on the Atlantic Worse Than
the Great blizzard Fifty mr. More Sail