The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-22

L1TCHFIELp, Ill. March 21.-An explosion
resembling an earthquake, and destroying
nearly Sl,o000OO worth Of property, oc-
Cured here this morning. The death o.
one person and the injury of a number o
other people also resulted from the catas
trophe. Practically every business struc-
ture in Litchfield was wrecked, and score.
of dwellings were rendered uninhabitable
A panic reigned for hours and details Of
the terrible affair were obtained with the
utmost difficulty.
About 325 O'Clock a. N. an alarm OF fire
was turned in. Upon investigation it de
veloped that the Litchfield Planet mills
located in the southwestern part of the
city, and said to be one of the largest, if
not the largest, single four-making estab.
ment in the world, were in flames. Before
the firemen arrived upon the scene the fire
had gained great headway. The hose and
hook and ladder companies had hardly
succeeded in getting their apparatus in
working order when an explosion appal-
ling in its violence WAS caused by the sud-
den contact of the flames with the pent-
up mill dust. The explosion shook the
earth over singularly wide area, while
the atmospheric conclusion was felt as far
firemen battled with the flames for three
long hours finally subduing them to such
an extent that the adjoining property was
saved.
While the fire department and the sud-
denly aroused citizens were hurrying to
the scene of the confiagration the entire
city was startled by en explosion, the like
of which has rarely been known. Houses
irembled upon their foundations, chimneys
toppled and fell, the sides and fronts OF
buildings were crushed as if they were
eggshells. Women were almost craZed
with fright and men were panic stricken.
Few could conjecture the cause, the ma
jority appearing to think that iG was the
crack of doom. Those who witnessed the
explosion say that there was a rumbling
sound; then, simultaneously with the ter
rife report a vast column Of dust and smoke
arose from the burning buildings, and
from its midst central column of flames
(by some described as a ball of fire. ascend
ed high in the air, which instantly WAS
filled with flying debris.
The explosion broke the large plate-
glass windows in majority of the stores
in the city, shook houses loose from their
foundations, and Jared the machinery in
the Litchfield car and machine works to
such an extent that work had to be sus-
pended. The head millwright, Mr.. John
Carve of Waterloo, in making an effort to
secure his tools from the burning build
ing was stunned by the explosion, and
while endeavoring to escape was pinned
against the smokestack and burned to
death. The large elevator standing i'm
mediately across the Wabash track west
of the mills, and containing 250,000
bushels of wheat, was burned to the
ground. Ten or twelve carloads of wheat
standing on the track were also reduced
to ashes. The Western Union wires are
down.
A number of people were injured. but
no necessarily fatal accidents are reported.
Mrs. V. Hoffman had leg broken, Mrs.
Henry Steigel an arm crushed, Mrs.
Eichbroth a leg mashed, Thomas Donahue
his head cut aud bruised, aud ID. B. Green
wald was badly cut by flying glass.
Most of the mill property was owned by
Keller Bros. of st. Louis. General Mama
ger A. l.. Smith stated that the amount of
insurance carried on the mill, elevator and
contents was $3.50. 900, while the loss Will
run up into almost million dollars. Ex-
cursions from all the neighboring towns
brought hundreds of visitors.
The coroner's jury this afternoon exoner-
ated the mill owners from all blame. A
numbef OF persons i'll the vicinity of the
mill and elsewhere were injured by frag-
ments of glass and wood, but none SER
iousiy.
1t is thought that the accident was
caused by flour Of an inferior grade being
carried to the dust room, which made a
very combustible material, as one process
OF manufacturing dynamite is from the
dust thus accumulated.
The mill loss is 500. GOO, while the insur-
ance IS about S230,000 placed in some
twenty or thirty companies.
ST. LOUIS, March 1.-THE great force of
the explosion of the Litchfield mill is
shown by the fact that the inhabitants of
towns many miles from the scene of the
calamity were aroused by the vibration
and attributed the rocking sensation to an
earthquake. 1t was distinctly felt at Mas
coutah, Highland. Greenville, Paua and
other points. The theory that the explo-
SIGN was occasioned by -four dust finds no
favor among St. Louis millers
Il know nothing about the particulars"
said Alexander III. Smith, ''but am GER
tain that -four dust was not the cause. In
The old days the dust was blown about the
mill In very finely disseminated condi-
tion. and the air WAS filed with minute
particles. The smalles. shock, such as the
striking OF a match, was likely to cause
IN explosion. just why the dust
Should explode is not known.
Probably today it would be said
that it was due to electricity. But
since the invention of the dust machine -
George I. Smith. no such explosions aA
possible. as ali millers are provided with
them, and there Is no dust in the air. The
explosion, in all likelihood, was a boiler
explosion. 1t certainly was not due to
DUST
The burned mill was considered the
largest red winter wheat mill in the coun-
try. 1t had an output of $500 barrels of
nour every twenty four hours, and last
year produced Az. 900 barrels.