New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-02-28
A BIG MILL BOILER BURSTS.
TWO KILLED AND MANY INJURED IN
NEW-BEDFORD.
THE WHOLE CITY THROWN INTO A PANIC BY AN
EXPLOSION AT THE AcusHNEr MTLLs-sEv-
ERAL BUILDINGS WRECKED AND MANY


EXPLOSION AT THE AcusHNEr MTLI.s-sEv-
ERAL BUILDINGS WRECKED AND MANY
NARROW ESCAPES FROM DEATH
New-Bedford, Mass. Feb. 2I-One Of the most
serious boiler explosions and fires in the recent
history OF the city occurred this morning shortly
after o'clock. when the boiler-house, harness
shop and clothroom OF the Acushnet Mills were
wrecked. two employees. and possibly more. killed
outright. and a dozen or more operatives In
jured The whole city was thrown into state
Of intense excitement. A piece of the exploded
boiler weighing a ton shot high into the air,
cleared the three-story main mill and landed on
the roof OF the South Police Station, quarter
OF mile away, completely wrecking the upper
story OF the building. In addition TO this the
glass In nearly every window in the surround
ing mills was shattered. and a hole nearly
twenty feet square broken through the
picker-room of the mill. TO the east OF the
boiler-house, by flying boiler tubes
So far as Is known at present only two en-
ployes were killed. but il Is a miracle that the
list OF the dead not quadrupe1. The ex-
plosion caused a panic among the hundreds Of
employees at the mill, and the scene, especially
in the clothroom, was one of extreme confusion.
The frightened girls employed in this room
dropped everything and rushed for the outer
air. tranpling each other in their hurry to
escape. Beyond a few bruises received in the
mad rush, all the girls in the clothroom escaped
without serious injury.
Fire and escaping steam added to the excite
ment and in five minutes the streets In the
neighborhood filled with anxious and ex-
cited people. Two alarms from the box on the
premises summoned nearly the entire Fire De-
partmert to the spot. and the work OF quench-
ing the flames and searching the ruins for bodies
at once began. The nfammabe material In
the harness-shop and the clothroom gave the
flames a chance to spread, but the fire was con
fined to the building in which the explosion
occurred.
Two bodies those OF Matthias Mendoza, a
Portuguese fireman, and Antoine Aspen, hf-
teen-year-old boy, employed in the harness
room, were taken out of the ruins. They were
burned almost beyond recognition. The father
of the Aspen boy able to identify his son
by the shoes and stockings which he wore, and
the face of the fireman was sufficiently preserved
to insure Identification
Four painters were at work on the police sta
ton when the piece of boiler crashed through
the roof one of them. Joseph Sylvia was
knocked down and pinned to the floor by falling
timbers. He was taken out with his back in
jured.
An inspection Of the police station wardroom
revealed considerable havoc In tearing its way
through the roof the huge fragment Of iron
left the ceiling with scarcely a vestige OF plas-
ter. The arches and beams were torn into
spl!nterS and were StreWn about until the roof
was left with scarcely any means Of support.
In fact, the possibility Of its falling down was
such a source of danger that the crowds which
had collected to view the disaster were ordered
out OF the ROOM the doors locked and every
one forbidden to enter The exterior OF the
building presents much the same appearance of
destruction. A large part Of the roof appears
as II IT had been in the path of tornado, and
1t rests in unsettled condition upon the walls
of the building Several of the windows were
shattered. and displaced bricks scattered
in the street.
The damage is estimated at $4,000. insur-
ance being carried in the Mill Mutual Com
pany.
The cause Of the explosion Is a complete mys-
terry John King. the engineer. says that he
in the boiler-house only ten minutes before, and
the gauges stood al % pounds. The last in
specton. made in September. allowed the carry
ing OF % pounds but all the valves were set at
"a pounds. and would not allow any higher pres
sure. He declares that the exploded boiler could
not have been under any higher strain than that.
There may have been some sudden giving way
of braces inside, but he knew nothing OF the
cause Of the explosion.