The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-13
ELEVEN KILLED BY EXPLOSION
PART OF A POWDER WORKS PLANT
BLOWN UP.

Grain of Gravel or Sand Mixed in
Powder Believed to Be RESPONSE
BILE for the Disaster-Three Men in
the Mixing Room Blown to Atoms.
Man Who Was Standing Some
Distance Away Decapitated-The
Head Picked Up so Feet From the
Body.
New York, July 1.-Two explosions,
which killed eleven men, wounded about
twenty others ana wrecked two buildings,
occurred at the plant of the Lafin-Rand
powder works at Pompton, N. j., this
morning.
The first explosion was in the house
where gun cotton was made. and the sec
ond, presumably supcrinduced by concus-
sion, was in the drying house close by.
Three men were in the mixing room
when the explosion occurred, and they
were blown to atoms.
Chief Engineer Craig, who was in the
engine room, had has head crushed to 4
jelly in the wreckage of the boiler house.
the side of which was blown out.
John Philips was standing near a tree
some distance from the mixing house. His
| head was blown from his body and was
picked up eighty feet away.
The foreman of the drying room was
blown to pieces, and a number of Italians
who were digging a trench in the rear of
the building were killed.
The most seriously injured was William
H. Emmons, private of Company I,
Third New Jersey Volunteers. 1t is not
likely that he will recover.
Alex Butler was also fatally injured
The explosions were followed by a fire
which threatened TO spread to the other
buildings of the plant in which tons of
the highest explosives were stored.
Five companies of the Third New Jer-
sey Volunteers have been stationed at the
plant since the war with Spain began, and
they were ordered under arms and went
to the scene of the explosion at double
quick time. Within ten minutes the SOL
ders had formed Gordon about the
works.
The fire was soon quenched and the
search for the dead and missing was i'm
mediately begun.
The Laflin-Rand Company has been en-
gagged in the manufacture of brown DOW
der, nitro glycerine, gun cotton and smoke
less powder, under contract to the govern
ment.
The loss of the company will be great
but it is said that a reconstruction of
the wrecked buildings will begin at day
light tomorrow and that the plant will
be in full running order in two weeks.
After the explosion there was some talk
of a Spanish spy being implicated in the
attempt to destroy the powder mill but
the theory of the men connected with the
works is that a grain of gravel or sand
got into some powder which was in pro-
cess of handling in the mixing room and
that as it went through the machinery
the foreign substance came in contact
with a metal surface and threw out a
spark which ignited the explosives.
The list of killed follows:
John Craig, So years old, chief engineer
of the works.
William Brenna, IS years old, cart driver.
James Phillips, 40 years old, married,
and leaves a family.
Daniel Freeman, 30 years old, boss of
the drying room.
william Fisher, an inside worker.
William Fisher, Jr., helper.
John Bonatta, laborer, of Butler.
Casper Cozzino 50 years old, Italian la
borer. married.
In q pocket of the clothing found on it
was found a due" Slip for work done for
the company.
jose Casenne, Italian laborer, killed in
the ditch.
Jsgganan, an employe of the company, is
missing.
About o'clock in the evening, while
the night guards were being posted they
came across a body, or rather a portion Of
one This made eleven killed
This man appears 10 have been working
on the side of the mountain a thousand
wards from the works. His head was
blowa off.
A boy named Fisher is also missing. He
was working with his father, and he may
have been blown TO pieces.