The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-07-16

ard the bay showed where the contentl
Of the acid tanks had emptied them
selves. All the mixing and packing
houses Of the black powder and sulphur
mill were in ashes. The damage to thu
black powder works alone will amour,
to over $4,000.
Great Loss of Life.
The very first explosion that occurred
caused the gian powder magazine to go
up, The Black Powder mills lay direct.
ly in the path Of the explosion ana burn
ing brands were heaped upon the al
fore the frightened Cinnamon could col.
lect their senses the powder in the
black mills had exploded. 1t was for a
long time impossible to gain any idea of
the number of lives lost. The company
declined to give out any particulars and
as most of the men employed were
Chinese the names were not obtainable.
However, an estimate was made at l
o'clock that there were 1O4 of whom 1O1
we're Cinnamon, but there was reason to
believe that that estimate was far in ex-
cess of the actual number.
The u of the explosion is said to
have been the upsetting of a bottle of
acid in the office, which set fire to the
building. Early this afternoon no one
would approach the magazine which had
not exploded and which contained over
300 tons of giant powder and dynamite.
Fortunately the fire was kept away from
the main magazine. Three white men
who were working in the ni~tro-glyceIine
house were killed. They were John
Bowe, Wallace Dickerson. and Charles
Guberlie. Their bodies were found.
The head engineer of the glycerine
house was blown twenty feet and
knocked senseless. Mrs. Painter of
West Berkely, who was sick
was so affected that she is believed to be
dying. a boy named Borcherer was
blown through the roof of one of the
buildings. He will die. The body of a
Chinaman was found on the railroad
half a mile from the works. The remains
of a Chinese boy. frightfully mangled,
ware found near the scene. John Farley,
a workman walking near the mixing
house. was blown into the bay, but
swan out. The bodies of three white
men were found in the debris terribly
mangled.
Later accounts contine the list of the
dead among the white employees to these
three men. 1t is most impossible to as
certain exactly the number of Chinese
who were killed. Only two Chinese
bodies fere found up to this evening
but it is believed several others lost their
lives. The bodies of the dead are now
in the Oakland morgue. One of the
most striking features of the explosion
was the extent of the damage in the way
of broken windows that was caused in
this city. twelve miles from the scene.
The officers of the giant powder com
pany say it is almost impossible to esti-
mate the loss but $4,000 will probably
be an outside figure for the damage to
the powder works. The San Francisco
chemical works owned by Egbert Jud-
son and j. L. n. Shepard were almost
completely destroyed and their loss is
not far from $4,000.
rive Lives Were Lost.
Latest reports this evening show that
it has been definitely ascertained that
five persons lost their lives. three white
employees and two Chinese. 1t is be-
lieved this is the extent of the fatalities.
a number of Chinese and several white
persons were more or less seriously in
jured.