The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-13
FIRE NEAR FORCITE'
Forests in Flames Where
Five Tons Of Powder
Are Stored.
EIGHTY LIVES In DANGER
Men Hard at Work to Remove the
Terrible Explosiye-Farmers
Moving Their Goods.

DOVER, May 13, 1S9e.-The employees
and the huge plant of the American For
cite Powder Company at Landing, N. j.,
are threatened by the forest fires now
raging in the hills and lowlands of New
Jersey.
On Monday the flames We're two miles
from the works, but today they are but
quarter of a mile distant All the avail
able men at the works are fighting the
flames with shovel, broom and water
The wind. which is now blowing gem
tly away from the works, is giving po-
tent hand in driving away the flames,
but if it should change and blow towards
the works there will be little hope for
the men except in flight.
Five tons of powder and the lives in the
battle are at stake.
The works cover about five hundred
acres and comprise sixty-seven build
ings.
They are situated partly in the bot
toms and partly on the hills about eight
or nine miles from Lake Hopatcong
and the same distance from Dover
N. j.
The powder is stored in two maga-
zines. the nearest one of which to the
: flames is about mile away. All of the
buildings are but one story and mostly
Of wood.
Eighty men. under Superintendent
Inomas Il. Johnson, are employed at the
works and also a number OF boys.
mere has been no rain in the neigh
'porhood for several weeks, and a spark
from locomotive of the Delaware
LaekaWanna Ia rfsd nm esa and Western Railroad
dry scrub oak and underbrush which
apounds in the neighborhood.
The fire smouldered until Monday. when
At was discovered by an employe of the
Powder Company. 1t had then spread
over many acres. He gave an alarm
II It once took all the precautions pos
morning.
II started gang of thirty men with
shovels and prooms at work beating out
I'm the works themselves we took every
precaution. We have an abundance of
water from Lake Hopacong, and we wet
debris that would be likely to catch
I'VE succeeded. we thought yesterday,
IN extinguishing the fire. but it started
~ This morning the men are still fight
ms lg the f1re and we now anticipate little
the fire away. 1t has not gained on US
since yesterday.
Our magazines are on the edge of the.
Marks ana are farthest of our buildings
from the fire. The magazine nearest the
names contains only a half ton of powder
The prospects are that unless the wind
increases we will soon have the flames
under control.
AS yet the flames have done no dam
age. as the several hundred acres they
nave burned over contain no farmhouses
Al the powder works all labor has
stopped except that of the battle with the
fire.
The offices of the American Forcite
Pow der Company are at No. 253 Broad
way Clarence H. Mackie is President
and w. 7. Ferguson Secretary and Treas
urer.
The company is capitalized at s45oOoO
and its plant is one of the largest of the
kind in the country
Two explosions have already occurred
there. One was April IS, 1892, and the
other on January 9, 1898.
Six employees. including John Bolton
Smith, the superintendent, were blown to
atoms in the explosion of 1892. Six of the
buildings, including the. three mixing
houses, where the explosion originated,
We're blown to atoms. The effect of the
explosion was seen for miles around and
the shock was felt far and wide The
cause of the explosion was never ascer-
tanned.
The other explosion, caused by a fire,
demolished three buildings, but the en-
ployes had chance to get ito place of
Safetv and wore min i11red