The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-09-12

Connellsville, Pa, September D.
The Rand Powder Mills, at Fair
Chance, six miles south of Union
town, were entirely wiped out by an
explosion at 9:05 o'clock today. Of
the thirty-two men who went TO work
in the mill this morning, nineteen are
known to be dead, Of these, thirteen
have been identified. Nine men, in
Guiding G.. M. Rand, manager of the
plant, were seriously injured.
Scores of people in the town Of Fair
Chance, within half mile of the pow
der mills, were more or less painfully
injured. The shock of the explosion
was distinctly felt in Connellsville,
twenty miles away, buildings being
rocked on their foundations At Union
town 800 panes of glass were broken
In the town Of Fair Chance there is
scarcely house that did not suffer
damage. The sides were battered as
though axes had been used. Hay
stacks were toppled over in the fields
and live stock were stunned. The rails
of the Baltimore and Ohio railway,
and the West Pennsylvania Traction
railway company, were rooted from
their rOadbed and traffic was delayed
from 4 to 6 hours, transfers being
made over the Pennsylvania. Train
No. SO on the Baltimore and Ohio had
a narrow escape from annihilation. 1t
had just passed the Rand Mills when
the explosion occurred. The windows
in the passenger coaches were shat
tered and passengers thrown into
panic. Had the train been a few sec
onds late it would have been blown up,
as the mills were in few rods Of the
tracks.
A street car on the West Pennsyl-
vania railroad had also passed just
few seconds before the explosion, and
was far enough away to escape dam
age, though it was derailed.
There were seven explosions in all.
Every one of the ten buildings were
totally demolished. Not a vestige of
them remains tonight. The debris
that was strewn over the ten acres
of ground where the plant was located
took fire soon after the explosion aud
added it's terrOrs to the disaster. The
dismembered parts o fthe dead were
burned in many instances Identified
ton of many was made by parts OF
clothing alone. The first three explo-
sions were not as serious as the last
four. Then the packing house, press
ing room and magazine blew up, fol-
lowed by two cars of dynamite, stand
ing on nearby railroad siding, which
were set off by the conclusion from the
powder mill explosions,
When the bodies were recovered the
work of Identification was very diff
ficult Small pieces of bodies were
picked up all over the place, but they
were so mangled it was difficult to col
lect enough fragments of any one body
to make identifications possible. Al
most half mile mountainward from
the plant an Office oversleeve, wet
with blood, was picked up.
The hole where the magazine ex-
ploded is about fifteen feet deep and
fifty yards square. The earth, BLACK
and soggy, is thrown up in huge
chunks, some of them weighing hun
dred pounds. Under the high banks
of earth thrown up at this place work
men are working with picks trying 70
get trace of more bodies.
Manager G. Mortimer Rand was TAX
en- TO his home at Uniontown on a
street car, about noon. He suffered
greatly from shock, aside from the
painful injuries he received. Mr..
Rand could not be seen and no state
ment from the company could be Sc
cured on the accident or the cause
Of it.
This is the third explosion at the
Rand plant within the past two years.
Three men were killed in the frs. ex-
plosion. Two were hurt in the second,
which was only slight A few months
ago the citizens Of Fair Chance had
an Injunction served on the Rand
Powder firm asking the court that the
firm be compelled to move their works
from that vicinity. They claimed the
town OF Fair Chance and the safely OF
its citizens were ieopardiZed by the