Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-08
FRIGHrEuL EXPLOSIONS.
The Dupont Powder Works Wrecked
Distant Towns Damaged.

WILMINGTON (Del), October 7th.-Sev-
eral startling explosions in quick succession
(some counted five, others seven) at $3.50
p. NJ to day announced to Wilmington a
disaster at the Dupont Powder Works, on
the Brandywine.
A rush was made for telephones, but
nothing could be learned beyond vague re-
ports of the damage.
An Associated Press representative has
tened to the scene and has wired that the
whole section of the works known as the
upper yard" is complete wreck and at
least six lives have been lost. One of the
magazines went off first, and the roll
ing and drying mills. near by, set
off BY concussion, followed in rapid sue.
cession. There were at least seven distinct
successive explosions.
Every dwelling in the neighborhood is
reported wrecked, unroofed or more or less
damaged.
Telephone inquiries from Westchester
state that the explosions were distinctly
heard in that section.
a messenger has just brought in the fol-
lowing dispatch, which shows that the
worst has not yet been learned of the pow
der mill explosion. Ten were killed and
twenty wounded. Rockland is complete
wreck None of its houses are left stand
ing. Rockland is village on Brandy wine,
fully mile above the scene of the explo-
sion. 1t compsises large paper mill,
owned by the Jessup 81 Moore Company,
and about fifty dwellings, in which chiefly
reside the mill employees. Its population
is about 200.
The evidence of destruction at that dis
tance leads to the belief here that the num-
Der of killed and wounded has not yet been
fully ascertained.
The Dupont Powder Mills extend along
the Brandy wine, chiefly on the west bank
and close to the water, for about two miles.
They are divided into upper" and lower"
yards. The former is three miles and the
latter five miles from Wilmington
The report of damage done at Rockland
now proves incorrect es TO locality, the
name of kockland being enormously used
for the buildings clustered around what is
known in the locality as the upper yard.
There are some fifty houses, inhabited By
employees of the powder mills, clustered
here, and these were all wrecked. The
damage to property cannot be thoroughly
estimated tonight.
The force of the conclusion even broke
windows in some parts of Wilmington,
four or five miles away
Following is partial list of the killed:
Martin Dolan, James Dolan, William Nc.
Garvey, John Martygan, William Denni-
son, John Dietz, Thomas Hurlike. John
Hurlike, Patrick Dougherty, John Newall,
William Green and woman named Rose
Deugherty.
Several others are missing.
The more seriously injured, as far as
learned, are Daniel Harkins, William Lo-
gan. Annie and Marie Dolsn, James Ward,
Hugh Ferry, John McDougall, Mrs. Wm.
Mcdowell, her two-years-old daughter and
Lydia Anderson.
The Office of the Dupont company is a
complete wreck and six mills are in ruins.
Several members of the Dupont firm were
injured by falling walls and broken glass,
but none of them seriously.
The dead were all employees of the COM
pany, and were in and about the mills that
exploded. Several workmen are missing
and are believed to have been blown into
fragments.
The first explosion occurred in one of
the packing mills where workman named
Gran wss receiving can Of hexagonal