The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-10
NO THEORY OF ACCIDENT
THE TEN BOILERS HAD BUT RECENT.
LY BEEN OVERHAULED.
Great Excitement in the Neiehbor.
hood of The Mreck-PrOperty
Loss and Delay.

81 -tDead.-
4 CHARLES BOWERS. fireman, 200 Mad
ison avenue, scaleed to death.
i Injured
ERNEST SHELTON, fireman, I'LL South
Capitol avenue. bsuised about arms. head.
Hospital in serious condition.
FRED STARKa1Y, ash wheeler, 1851
South Meridian street. bruised on head.
arms and back, fatally hurt.
EUGENE HUTCHINSON, coal passer
635 South Missouri; street. scalded on breast
4 and arms.
PAUL STURM. ;water tender, 1881 Mad
ison avenue, scaldFd about arms and head.
ROBERT EMNIINGS. fireman. 21O2 Webb
/ street. right shoulder and arm bruised and
/ injured internally
A E. KLINGEIsSMITH, chief engineer,
1906 South East street, hands scalded and
. bruises.
WILLIAM M'DOsNALD, boiler maker. 1724
Olney street. left knee injured.
. LEO WILEY, hesper to boiler maker. I'LL
Pleasant street. bruised slightly.
One of the largeisixty-inch steam boilers
In the engine rosm Of Plant of the
American Hominy Company at Madison
avenue and Palmsr street exploded yes
terday afternoon 1t $40 o'clock from an
unknown cause. wiecking the engine room
Of the plant andi burying the workmen
engaged in il beneath pile of debris from
which they escap.d with the assistance
Of rescuing partiessto find that one of their
number had been Instantly killed and eight
others more or less painfully and serious
ly injured.
The dead man, Charles Bowers, was the
fireman OF the boi:er which exploded, No.
g. a large sixty-inci. Atlas Engine Company
structure which after bursting was blown
many feet into th99s air and through the
frame roof of th3 engine house to be
hurled on its side :about thirty feet from
its place In the ljhe of ten boilers. The
steam fiue, which rested on Boiler and
carried from II the ,steam used in the gen.
Grafton OF power in! the large milling plant,
was thrown in an bpposite direction, tear
ing Us way through the frame structure,
and on its path ofsdestruction, to be par
TALLY stripped of its sheet iron covering
and lay kissing w<th escaping steam on
top of boiler No. 10.
The smoke fiue cbnnected with the sew
enty-foot smoke stack at the plant was
torn from its positi5n in front of the boil
ers and dropped 81 the ash pits below
where IL crushed tie life out of Fireman
Bowers and held his body pinioned while
the scalding water ;isfigured 1t by parboil-
ing it until the boesy was dragged out by
Harry Mcdonald. tbp City Dispensary driv-
er who was the n 3st to venture through
the cloud Of steam - the rescue.
HOW. oTHTsRS ESCAPTD.
The other men employed In the engine
room escaped in var sous ways. All of them
were thrown from ssneir feet by the force
of the explosion. Ernest Shelton. a coal
passer. was hurled :rom his position to a
point beneath the soal cars which were
standing on the j., x. & /. Railroad siding,
and escaped from seing pinioned in the
debris through the hrotection afforded by
the cars. He crawlt.i from his place and
was sent 10 St. VirSent's Hospital where
he lies dangerously injured. His injuries
consist of several stalds about the head.
arms and breast an3 they may result IA
tally.
Fred Starkey, an Ash wheeler who lives
at 1881 South Meridisn street, was working
IN the engine room when the explosion took
place and its force hsrled him fully twenty
feet TO a wall with which he collided. Al
though hurt badly snd probably injured
Internally through the violence of the col
Hsion he was able scrawl through a win
dow TO escape the scslding steam and was
picked up and taken ito his home He was
attended by DR.. Stoi:ch. who decided that
his injuries were so severe that he was sent
to the hospital for tIhatment
Robert Emmings. ]. fireman who lives
at 2l02 Webb street. lsas engaged in firing
boiler No. when tfss explosion occurred.
He was hurled by SIS force against the
pump OF the engine sroom and stunned.
After a few seconds be revived and re-
gained consciousness iong enough to climb
: through a window aid gain the air. He
was bruised about ihe chest and right