Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-10-17
TIRTHY-SIX BOILERS BLOW UP.
Series of Terrific Explosions Occur at "A
COIIiery at Shamokin, Pa.

Series of Terrific Explosions Occur at "a
CoIIiery at Shamokin, Pa.
Shamokin, Pa, Oct. Flour men
were killed, two fatally injured and sew
eral others painfully burned by Il disls-
trOus boiler explosion that occurred at
the Henry Clay colliery early today. The
entire steam supplying plant Of the mine,
consisting Of thirty-siX boilers, was de-
molished and in addition to the monetary
loss, which will aggregate $4,000, the
Henry Clay, Big Mountain, Sterling and
Peerless cOllierieS will be unable to resume
operation for at least Il month. The OK
plOsion is the worst of its kind that has
ever occurred in this region and it's cause
is mystery. The dead and injured are:
THOMAS CARR, fireman; leaves widow
and three children; one arm and one leg
broken Oft and body cut in two.
WILLIAM BOYLE. fireman; leaves wild
ow; horribly crushed and Iacerated about
the body; dead when recovered.
WILLIAM E. SLICK. aged Is years; neck
broken and both hips fractured; died in a
few minutes after being found.
PETER BECK, fireman. side of head
crushed and severe internal injuries; cannot
recover.
JACOB ]. DIDIADEM. water boss Of Ma
honey Valley: married; scalded ana crushed
about the abdomen and legs; cannot re-
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN. fireman: both legs
broken and head crushed; died two hours
JOHN FLENKENSTEIN. married: re-
ceived very serious injuries about body;
may recover.
DENNIS BRENNAN scraper boy: struck
in the face with bricks: not dangerous
WILLIAM QUINN of Springfield lamp
man; cut on head and badly injured by
MICHAEL BARRIS. switch boy. SPRING
field; injured by flying bricks
1t was about 7:25 this morning when
the workmen at the Henry Clay colliery
were startled by heavy explosion. At
the same moment a portion of the boiler
house was blown into the air and flying
bricks, sheets of corrugated iron and the
big boilers were hurled in every direc-
ton. Several other explosions took place
The air was filled with escaping steam
and debris for a radius of 400 yards. and
many of the employees narrowly escaped
death.
The report of the explosion was heard
in this city, distance of more than two
miles. The accident came upon the boiler
house employees without warning and only
one of them, a Pole, escaped uniniured.
The others We're buried beneath the mass
of debris, and some of the bodies were
not recovered for two hours. The boiler
on the western end of the house is sup
posed to have been the first to explode,
and then the adjoining boilers went up
in quick succession, the repeated eXplo-
sions resembling the roar OF heavy artiI-
lery. Only nine of the thirty-SiN boilers
escaped total destruction, and even these
were so badly damaged that they are
useless. Many of the boilers were torn
apart near the center by the terrible
force and the two sections would then
take different directions. One-half of
boiler was hurled full quarter of a
mile and lodged in the slush bank north
west of where the boiler house formerly
stood. Another that took a similar di-
rection crashed through the side of the
breaker and lodged against the Scraper
line. Another crashed through the tip
house and came near killing several en-
ployes. -Four collieries will be thrown
into idlenesS by the accident for Il month
or six weeks. so that the total loss will
aggregate 100000.