The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-03-24
EXPLODED MILLDUST
Total Destruction of One of the Finest
FIGURING Plants in the
World.
A Strange and Awful Catastrophe at
Small City in ILL
nOis.

LITCHFiELD, ILL.,, March 21.-An ex-
plosion resembling an earthquake and
destroying nearly million dollars worth
Of property occurred here this morning.
The loss of several lives and injury of a
number of people resulted from the
catastrophe. Practically every business
structure in Litchfield was wrecked and
scores Of dwellings rendered uninhabit-
able A panic reigned for hours and de-
tails of the the terrible affair were OBJ
tanned with the utmost difficulty.
About 3:15 a. m. it developed that the
Litchfield Planet mills located in the
southwestern part of the city and said
to be the largest single flour making es-
tablishment in the world was in flames
Before the iremen arrived upon the
scene the fire had gained such headway
that for some time nothing could be done
to check it and it seemed as if the entire
south part of the town would be con-
sumed. The fire is supposed to have
originated by a spark from passing To-
comOtive falling in one Of the dust rooms.
| Hose and hook and ladder companies
had hardly succeeded in getting their
apparatus IN working order when an eX-
plosion appalling in its violence was
caused by the flames sudden contact
with the pent,up mill dus'. The ex-
plosiOn shook the earth Over singularly
wide area, while the atmospheric con
cussiOn was felt as far as Decatur, a
distance of fifty miles.
Firemen battled with the flames for
three hours, finally subduing them to
such an extent that adjoining property
was saved.
The explosion broke the large plate
glass windows in Il majority of the store'
and Frustrated almost every one on the
streets: it shook houses loose from thei
foundations and Jared the machinery il
the Litchtield Gar and Machine com
pany to such an extent that work had t'
be suspended. The head millwright
John Carve Of Waterloo. in making al
effort to rescue his tools from the baZ
ing building was stunned by the cNplo
sion and endeaVOrlng to escape WIS pm
ned against smukestack and burned t
death. When found about three hour
afterwards his legs were burned OIL IA
the hips, his right arm and left han(
were entirely consumed, aud his bod.
"
/ was burned TO "A crisp. y large elevate
: im,no iiG.t II "osC the Wabash track
containing 10000 bushels of wheat, wa
/ totally destroyed, and ten cars Of whca
p were reduced to ashes. \ large pile q
. debris, from ten 10 fifteen feet high, coy
ers the Wabash tracks and ira Ac is bad
ly impaired The Western Union wire
G are also dowr, which makes the matter
!. great deal worse. \ number of serou
but not necessarily fatal accidents ar
reported.
I The mill was the property Of kehle
: Bros. of st. Louis. Its capacity wa
}; 1000 barrels of flour daily. 1t employe
- 80 men. general Manager A. l.. Smit
= says that the amount of Insurance. cal
n ried on the mill, elevator and content
@ was about S3j0,O00, while the loss wi
l. run up into almost million dollar
o The night watchman in the mill wa
@ hurled through a window and badly il
jured Window glass was broken an
chimneys blown down in towns 10 mile
distant. Nearly every house within
radius of two blocks from the mill WI
70 badly wrecked.
r In addition to those already name
IF the following persons were injure'
!. Thomas Donahue. head cut and bruised
d Mrs. Henry Steigle, arm crushed: Mr.
:. Lew llussy, arm cut: ID. H. Gre"nwal
le badly cut by flying glass; Andrew Du
a can. head cut.