The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-16
SEVEN PERISH BY
 EXPLOSION AT AVON
DREADFUL DISASTER 1T WORKS OF CLIMAX FUSE co. NEAR
 HARTFORD.

Near By and Flames Had Their Own
 Way-Relatives of Missing Watch
 Bodies Crisped in Whitening Blast--
 Helpless Injured Carried Home fin
 WagOns-ReIief Rushed to Scene.
 Avon, Conn, Sept. 15.-The explosion of fuse, followed by fire in build ing of the Climax Fuse company here this afternoon, caused panic among twenty employees in the building which resulted in the death of seven and in- juries that doubtless will prove fatal to several others.
 There was no way ot coping with the flames which soon spread, and in less than an hour after the explosion oc- cured those who were unable to escape were in the clutches of a fire that even tually burned their bodies to ashes.
 As the day wore on the great crowd that collected in the hamlet saw the bodies of men and women roasting in the fire and were powerless to even check the flames. .
 The list of dead and injured follows;
 The dead-William Burke, 40 years old, married; James Joyce, about thir- ty-f1ve, married; Robert Mccarthy, aged eighteen; James Wallace, married. whose wife lives in Springfield Mass; Molly Mccarthy, Miss J. Sullivan, Mrs. M. B. Tucker.
 The injured-Charles Dinmock, se- were burns, expected to die; Michael Canfield, severe burns, probably will recover; Michael Mccarthy, severely burned; Lyman Hull, burns; Mrs. Will liam Burke, probably fatally burned; Earl Tullar, burns; Arthur Fuller, burns; Nellie Garfield, burns and bruis- es; Mrs. Fish, severely bruised; Nora Ryan, badly burned about the neck and back.
 Mrs. Burke is the wife of William Burke, who is numbered among the dead and had been employed in the fac tory but a few days. '@'
 The exact cause of the accident may never be known, but 1t is the accepted theory here that in an effort to burn out stoppage in one of the machines, James Joyce caused an explosion of a fuse with the hot iron he held in his hand. Those. who were in the room where the explosion occurred, and who came out of the place in a condition to tell about it, say tht the explosion was not a severe one and ordinarily would not have caused panic. Inflan1I1la- ble material near to, however, was set on fire, and in few moments the room was a mass of flames.
 In an instant there was a mad. rush for the doors and windows and during the scramble many were pushed back into the building while others were se- verely burned. The explosion took place on the ground floor of the older build ing in the factory group, in the finish ing room, and about twenty persons were employed there. There was but sixty hand at work in the entire plant.
 Tt is stated tonight that some of the dead may have been overcome by sr1oke before they had a chance to flee, and that it is improbable that any one of the seven victims lost his life by the force of the explosion.
 For some time it was not known how many were dead, but tonight an &C., counting was made for all the employees but seven, whose names are given above. Many of the injured were al- most helpless and were carried to their homes in wagons, and an immediate call was sent out for medical aid. Ten physicians from nearby towns came to the rescue and did good service in car inc for thn nj Ah a some of whom could be heard for a considerable distance.
 The scenes at the fire were heartrend- ing. Friends and relatives of the miss- ing were almost frantic when it be- came known that bodies of those close to them were being burned to a crisp in the ruins of the factory. As there is no fire department in the town it was utterly useless to cope with the flames with buckets.
 As one of the walls of the second largest building fell several bodies could be seen entangledfin the mass of machinery in the basement and in a short time they were reduced to ashes. Early in the evening the body of woman was seen near the edge of the fire and an effort was made to pull it away from the flames, but on account of the great heat this was impossible.
 Soon after that building was consrim- ed the fire spread to the new structure. lately completed at cost of S35. 900, and in a few hours this building was gutted, only the four walls remaining. Two smaller buildings were reduced to ashes, making a total of four burned, the loss on which is estimated to the $100,00O.
 A few rods from the group of burned buildings two small sheds in which fuses and powder are stored, but they escaped the flames.
 It was supposed that the burned buildings were either fire proof or equipped with automatic fire sprinklers, but on account of the burning of the belting which works the pumps the sprinklers were rendered useless, A great quantity of valuable machinery was destroyed by the fire which burn ed all night long, and attracted thou sands who came here from surround ing towns in all kinds of conveyances
 The result of the burning of the fuse works will have @ severe effect on the industrial situation in this town. The factory was the principal industry here any many of the 1900 inhabitants de-
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