Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-01-19
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.
Terrible Explosions-Five Men Killed Out
right in West Virginia.
[By teIegraph 70 the Dispatch.


CIScrYYArr. O., January 1s:- Specials
from the cities near Ceredo, W. Va. tells
the news of terrific explosion at the
Phoenix Powder-Mills. which was very
destructive to life, this morning.
The Phoenix Mill Is situated at Central
CITY. near Ceredo. and about half way be-
tween Huntington. w. Va, and Catletts-
burg, Ky. This is the third explosion at
this mill in three months. and is by all
odds the most destructive one. The last
one before this happened SIX weeks ago.
and was trifiing affair. How the awful
wreck Of to-day was brought about Will
never be known, because not soul that
was IN the mill is left alive to tell the story.
At half-past o'clock this morning people
in Ironton, twenty-five miles away. heard
the terrible decorating roar. In Ceredo,
three miles away. windows were oroEen
and wares in the stores we're shaken from
the shelves. In Catlettsburg, nearly ten
miles away. the earth shook, and the peo-
pie we're alarmed. Everybody OWNED the
cause, and there was rush from all dlrec-
tions to the scene The local authorities or
ganIZed and surrounded the ruins with
Gordon of police. through which none OF the
thousands of spectators were permitted TO
pass. 1t has been ascertained that the
first explosion was in the glazing-room.
where there were ten tons of powder. Thus
successfully the packing-house, the msga-
zine, and the four wheel-mills and lastly
carload of gunpowder went hurting In
fiery fragments through the air. Not
yestige of the entire plant remains. and the
country for half mile around IL strewn
with fragments of the buildings and OF the
bodies of five men. victims OF the disaster.
IL is not known definitely, but at the pre-
sent writing 1t is believed that not less
than thirty-five tons of powder were
bttrpa1 in fhp gpypral pxniOslOQ9.
{. s,issSs The KILLED AND INJURED.
The killed are Archie Livingston. o
Scotchman, who has been superintendent
of the kIlns since they started, and who
was blown to atoms. Only his hand was
found. Ed. Winton, the architect and
engineer who built the works, was IN the
magazine when it exploded, and, strange
to say. his body was very little mutilated.
The body of John Benton. a workman, was
horribly mangled. John Schlosser and
Charles Scott. workmen, We're both terri
bly, mutilated. All these are either known
or supposed to have been in the buildings
when the explosion took place.
Robert Cook, a glazing mill hand. was
approaching the glaZing-mlll when 1t blew
up. His clothing. hair, and whiskers were
burned off. He ran 200 yards to a stream
and Jumped in. He Will not live till
midnight. The seriously injured are :
Reece Estep and John Justice, who
happened TO be IN the vicinity when
the explosion occurred. There is no doubt
that there are many others slightly IN
jured whose names have not been ascer-
tained.
The loss to- the property by the explo-
sion was S50.0O0
CINCINNATI, January 1s.-A special from
Catlettsburg, KY, saws: The powder-mills
at Central City exploded this morning with ter
rife force. The sound was heard at lronton,
twenty-five miles away. window glas. was
broken In Catlett5Durg. seven men were Killed
and ak injured.
BIRpIHGHAM, Ala. January 1S.-Near Ok
moor, seven miles south q BirmIn cham, ter-i-
BILE explosion occurred yesterday morning
which cost two men their lives. An engine OF
the De Bardeleben Coal and Iron Company,
leased by Mcnamara Brothers, while going from
the Eureka mines TO OxmOor ran out OF water
and the engineer made an effort 70 reach a tank
half a mile away as soon as possible. When az
full speed the boiler exploded with tremen-
dous noise, yYscking the locomotive, blowing the
engineer, Joseph Hunt, land Fireman Bradford
INTO a thousand pieces. The track was torn up
and a great hole was dug in the ground. The
head OF the dead engineer was found quarter
of a mile away. People in that vicinity thought
an earthquake had occurred. Both the dead men
leave families
sion OF natural gas, in which fine residence
was destroyed, two churches were partially de-
molished, and about fifty houses damaged, ana
I'm which the family Of Judge John D. Brassee
mad a marvellous escape from death or serious
injury, occurred about $3.50 O'Clock at Lancaster.
o., twenty-five miles south OF here. The Judge
was In his study down stairs in his residence, a
twenty-room brick structure In the centre OF the
town, when the explosion occurred, while his
family were in bed. The house Was levelled
10 the ground and Judge Brassee thrown
about one hundred feet into the street.
car track, where he was afterward
niclred mn in n daZcd condition. Mrs. Brassee
and two daughters, Clara and Anna, and two
sons, Charles and Elfred, were In bed on the Sc
cond floor The sons were hurled $50 feet into
the Lutheran church-yard, while the women
were caught by the falling roof. They we're res
cued twenty minutes later In their night-clothes,
and were found 10 be cut and bruised. There
were four servants who luckily escaped without
any more serious harm than cuts ana bruises.
Remarkable to relate, none Of the people In the
house were even seriously injured. The loss
financially will be quite heavy.