The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1903-02-05
The Fort Wayne Explosion.

The Fort Wayne Explosion.
The Tribune was correct Thursday
in saying that the explosion which
caused the death of Oliver Matthews
and four other employees of the Eckert
packing house was an explosion OF
natural gas.
The Fit. Wayne Journal Gazette says:
The explosion occurred within few
minutes after the employees Of the big
packing plant had begun work. Some
Of the men had not arrived, but those
in the cutting room, the lard room
and the shipping room were all at
work when the crash came. The por-
tion Of the building where the ex-
plosion occurred was the sausage
room, between the two large cooling
rooms, and located nearly midway of
the series of structures that compose
the plant. 1t was brick building of
two stories and basement, and the
explosion occurred apparently in the
basement and in the west part Of this
wing.
There was absolutely no indication
of danger, no warning to the men
working in the building. The gas
pressure had been unusually strong in
the neighborhood, but when the men
went into the rooms to work there was
no odOr of escaping gas. The men
who escaped all tell the same story,
and one OF the injured men who re-
covered sufficiently to talk, likewise
said the doomed employees had no
warning. They only knew that they
were deafened by terrific report, that
some unseen power all at once lifted
the floor under their feet; than an in
slant later it sank, carrying them
down with it, amid a crash OF timbers
and rattle of masonry that was the
death knell OF five of them:
A cloud Of mortar. brick and plaster
dust arose, and when it cleared away
there was silence for moment in the
mass of wreckage. Then from the
debris came the most pitiful of all
shrieks and groans of
human beings in agony. Here and
there man was seen staggering from
the tangled mass of timber and brick,
but likewise here AID there were
bleeding, mangled forms pinned down
the heavy beams, motionless
and soundless. To add to the horror,
fire broke out in the ruins and it look
ed as though the unfortunates would
be cremated before rescue could reach
themv
But willing hands and brave hearts
were there to render aid, and the
work done by these men during the
awful hours yesterday morning is
story of heorism that every citizen of
Fort Wayne may long remember with
pride.
Before the work of rescue had pro-
crossed far there was danger from a
new source. The shock of the explos-
ion, or more probably the falling of
the walls, had broken the ammonia
pipes leading from the great tanks
used in the refrigerating department.,
and in few moments the suffocating
fumes of the fluid were all about the
ruins. The odor was so dense that
the rescuers were driven away, it be-
ing impossible for any one to remain
more than few minutes in the place.
The engineer finally managed to cut
of the flow and divert it into barrels
at the other side of the building, but
the deadly fumes had retarded the
work Of rescue and in all probability
some of the men In the
wreck. So powerful was the ammonia
that it operated more strongly than
the police Gordon to drive the crowd
back, for none could endure breathing
the fumes for more than few seconds
and many people In the crowd we're
nearly overcome.
The first dead body recovered was
that of Young Matthews. and there
was cry Of horror and pity as the
employees saw brought up from the
hell beneath the blackened, burned,
aod battered corpse of the good
humored, fair haired youth whom they
all loved.
cts poor Red" boys" they said,
and the nickname given him in life
was spoken lovingly IN death. Mat
thews' body was badly burned, but
was not mutilated.
Besides the FIVE lives crushed out
one more viii probably die; Eve others
Ire seriously injured and eight slight
y wounded.