Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-05-20
WROUGHT Sad HAVOC.
BATTERY OF BOILERS ExPLODES
WITH DEADLY EFFECT,
midland Experiences IN Dire Disaster
fa che Dcstructien of a Lumber
as,d Salt Plant.

Three large boilers In tho saw mill
of the Midland Salt and Lumber COM
pany at Midland, exploded killing
three men and injuring le others more
or less as follows: Killed.;
CHARLES ii. ALLEN, young married man.
RICHARD STEERS married.
EUGENE MISUNDERSTANDING, married.
The foltoyyingI.is full list of the in
jured:
CHARLES BUisT face cut and hip injured
AUGUSTUS MALQOMB head cut somewhat
injured internally. shoulder blade broken.
ALBERT BYE, seriously hurt and reported
TO be insane from his injury and the shock.
ARTHUR ROBINSON, badly scalded on face
and arm
CHARLES GLYNN, fireman, severely hurt.
A. T.. ELTON, head sawyer, injured
slightly.
SANFORD WALTON. face cut and hand hurt
M. SHADDUoK, hurt slightly.
ALBERT MOLI, hurt Il ghtly
FRED ROBINSON, hurt slightly.
PATRICK BURKE, collar bone broken,
burned on face and legs.
EARLE ALDRICH, slightly injured.
1t was just about O. clock when the
city was startled by very loud noise
like a battery of canon, and the city
and country for some distance shook
as by an earthquake. Those in the
vicinity of the mill saw the air filed
with debris, bricks and timbers being
found blocks away. Every body feared
a terribly fatal accident and hundreds
focked to the scene. verything on
the site was in ruins. Great pieces of
boiler, huge pipes, pieces of timber,
tons of brick and great sections of roof
lay all mingled together, and from be-
meath the great Pile of debris came the
cries and means of the dying and in
jured.
Willing hands at once began to
search for dead and injured. The first
body found was that of Charles Allen,
who was carried nearly hundred feet
by the great dome of the three boiler
battery and held fast by it near the
river. His head was crushed and his
brains exposed He leaves a young
wife and one child. T.. Vanvalken-
burg was found near a log car with his
head crushed in. He died soon after
being removed. He leaves wife and
several young children.
Richard Steers, who had lately be-
gun firing at small boiler and who
was talking with Elton in the boiler
room at the time of the explosion, was
buried out of sight among the broken
climbers, iron and tons of brick from
the great smokeStack. 1t took some
time to find his body, which was in
nearly an upright position and terribly
crushed. He leaves wife and two
girls, one of them married. Elton,
who stood by him, was thrown some
distance and covered with brick, while
great timbers arched over him. He
was but slightly hurt.
OF course no one knows exactly what
caused the explosion. The engineer,
A. ID. Guillott, says there was a crack
in the manhead frame which is on top
of the boiler and from that cracking
through the explosion resulted. The
engineer had just gone to oil the ma
chinery in the salt block, and in few
moments more would have been over
the boilers. He says that when he left
just moment before that there were
three guages of water. They carried
400 pounds of steam generally. The
owners of the mill. who all live here,
are among the most prominent men in
town. They seem to think that it was
lack of water. Many others agree with
them. The loss will amount to about
$4,000.