The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1904-06-11
BIG D|ST|LLERY
IS DESTROYED
Corning Company Plant at
Peoria, ILL.,, Is Scene OF
Death.
EXPLODING LANTERN IS CAUSE
Flaming Spirits are Thrown In all OIL
rections, the Fire Communicating to
other Buildings With Great Rapid
ity, Killing Fourteen Persons.

Peoria. H.. special: Fourtnsn men
were killed and six injured, property
worth $2,000,000 was destroyed and
1900 cattle were burned TO death in a
fire that swept the Corning Company's
distillery, .the second largest in the
world, Saturday afternoon. A stream
of burning spirits spread the fire to
the Peoria stockyards, block dis
tant, but by hard work the yards were
saved.
The fire was caused by an explod-
ing lantern, which set fire to 10000
barrels of spirits in the warehouse.
The turning spirits communicated the
flames to the entire plant and every
building was destroyed. save one.
Dead and Missing.
Eight bodies were recovered from
the ruins Sunday, four of which were
identified. The identified are: George
Gebhardt, Peter Lettemeyer. Thomas
Il. Montgomery. Samuel Parsons.
The list OF missing is as follows:
Ernest Brown, Milton Crowl, William
Finley, Jr., John Hobaker, Frank
Knoll, Alec. Powell. Louis Sox, Jo-
seph Zimmerman.
IL was at APO in the afternoon when
the large warehouse, eleven stories
high. built OF corrugated iron, burst
into flames. IL contained 10000 bar
rels of proof spirits and as the barrels
exploded the burning spirits was
thrown in all directions. The fire
spread with lightning rapldity and was
soon communicated to the .cistern
room, a brick building three stories
high, and to the fermenting rooms.
two brick buildings three stories high.
The cattle sheds were in the path
of the flames and burning spirits flood
ed the pens. The suffering OF the ami
mails was terrible. The entire distil-
lery plant, save the cookers. was
swept away.
Blown From Seventh Story.
Frank Phelan was in the seventh
story of the warehouse and was blown
TO the ground, distance of hun
dred feet, but was only slightly hurt.
Abe Feinberg was hurt by falling
wall his back and head being cut and
bruised.
A few minutes before the fire Fore
man Finley sent an entire gang OF
workers to one OF the upper floors
One of the gang was his own son,
William Finley, Jr., who is among
the dead.
A team Of the National Cooperage
Company, with two men. was in the
building at the time OF the explosion,
unloading barrels, and nothing has
been seen OF men or horses since.
Carried by Stream Of Whisky.
Elmer Hogan died at the Cottage
Hospital. He was washed to the
river in a stream OF whisky receiving
many cuts and burns.
The warehouse b, where the explo-
sion that did the damage occurred.
was an eleven-story structure, 100x200
feet in dimensions, and at the time
OF the fire contained in the neighbor-
hood OF 10000 gallons of spirits.
Warehouse A and the cistern room,
a three.story brick building, 100x200
feet, contained in the neighborhood OF
$4,000 gallons of spirits In the two
fermenting rooms, 100x1S0 feet were
eighteen tubs, with capacity OF 1000
bushels of mash each. They were all
filed and contained about 5000 gal
Ions OF spirits each. All this went up
in flames and added 10 the general
loss.