The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-16
MEN BLOWN TO PIECES.
Terrible Explosion of Powder
Near Ohio Factory.
THIRTEEN HUNDRED KEGS GO.
Ten People Killed, Forty Injured, at
Kings Mill Station.
Ignite and Burn, With Neishboring
Houses-Thirty Girls Slide Down .
Rope-Great Fireworks at Night.

CINCINNATI, July Is. "A terrible explosion oc-
Cured late this afternoon at Kings powder
mills. on the Little Miami railroad, twenty-nine
miles from this city. Ten persons were killed
and thirty or forty seriously injured.
Two empty freight cars were being
rolled on to . sidetrack, where car containing
500 kegs of powder was standing. When the
cars strnck there was an explosion, and i'm
mediatsly after another ear with 500 kegs of
powder exploded. making 1,300 kegs altogether.
William Friaiie, q brakeman, was standing on
one OF the empty cars when the explosion oc-
CURED. No trace of his body has been found.
Five other persons, supposed to be employees of
the powder company, were killed. Kings Pow
der Company. and the Peters Cartridge Works
have buildings on both sides Of the river along
the railroad. The explosion occurred on the
south side. 3 the destruction was enormous.
There are a number of cottages occupied by
workmen for the powder company and situated
close to the track. These were shattered by the
explosion and their inmates injured.
Twelve or fifteen girls at work in the cartridge
factory were crippled by the explosion. The
railroad freight house, belonging to the Little
Miami railway, together with all the adjacent
buildings, were set on fires and totally consumed
The tracks and ties of the road are torn up and
great holes ploughed in the ground. The
Peters cartridge factory was burned to the
ground. and nothing but mass of biackened
smouldering ruins remain to mark the spot
where the building stood.
AS soon as the news reached this city relief
train was dispatched to the scene of the disaster
with Superintendent Pettis and q large party
OF surgeons on board, and relief was offered the
sufferers as soon a. possible. The work OF
searching Tor the missing md caring for the
wounded is now progressing.
The force of the explosion demolished all the
wires in the vicinity, and it was impossible to
get any news from there till midnight, when
delayed Panhandle train arrived. Even the
passengers could not say much. as everything
about Kings Mills was in too demoralIzed con-
clifton when they left to learn much about
the actual state of affairs They described the
scene in the vicinity of the explosion as awful
Buildings for hundreds of feet in all directions
from the explosion, were badly wrecked. Tn
Peters cartridge factory is literally demolished,
and IRE from the combustible contents COM
plcted the work of destruction
About thirty girls are supposed to have been
at work in the factory at the time of the explo-
sion. and most of them are thought to be badly
hurt. Passengers who arrived on the train say
ten persons were killed, and that it is possible
more bodies are in the debris
.. ma messenger of the Adams Express,
says that when he passed KINGS Mills
station at 1870 it was bright as
day all around. Everything combustible
was burning, and people everywhere for great
distance around were fighting the IRE. The
roadmaster of the Little Miami had Information
that there were three families hv-.
ing in little cottages near the place OF
the explosion. Diligent search had failed to
find auy three of them. He says there was
great confusion and such thing as ascertain
ing the names was next to impossible.
An incident related by him was that the
thirty girls in the cartridge fac
tor saved themselves from the flames
by catching hold of rope that happened to
hang from the house to the ground, sliding
down this to the ground. His story are that
more than ten are killed.