The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-03-23
Scores of Shoe Factory En-
ployes at Brockton, Mass,
Meet Horrible Fate.
CAUSED BY BOILER EXPLOSION
Large Factory Building Totally Wreck
ed and Then Destroyed by Flames.
Hundreds Of Workers Were
Caught in Debris and
Many Of Them Were
Roasted to Death.

The city Of Brocktcn, Mass, was
the scene Of a frightful horror Mon
day morning, in which at least three
score Of her citizens lost their lives,
their bodies being mangled and ere.
mated, by the explosion Of boiler i1
a large shoe manufacturing establish.
ment in the Campello district conduct
ed by the R. 3. Grover Company.
The explosion was Immediately fol-
lowed by a flash of flame which con-
sumed the factory, a long four-story
structure, and incinerated an unknown
number of men and women who were
unable to extricate themselves from
mass of tangled wreekage formed
by the terrific upheaval in the boiler
room.
It may never be known just how
many persons perished in the wreck
age No one knows exactly how many
persons were in the factory. The
number has been estimated at 400, but
| Treasurer Charles o. Emerson Of the
Grover company said he doubted
whether there were so many at work.
Two hundred and fifty survivors have
! been accounted for and at midnight
Monday night the remains Of fifty
| bodies had been recovered from the
ruins, the search being continued all
night. Fragments Of human frames
which possibly might belong to bod
| les other than those enumerated have
| also been found. Few of the remains
| have been identified. The head In
nearly every case is missing and ex.
cept in rare instances it was impos-
sible even to distinguish the sex.
The work Of identifying those killed
progressed slowly, owing to generally
unrecognizable remains of the vic
/ Tins.
Explosion Followed by Fire.
The explosion which was followed
by such a sacrifice of life and en-.
tailed appalling instances Of human
| suffering occurred shortly after the
operatives had settled down to work
for the day. Suddenly the air vi
| brated with the roar of an explosion.
At the same moment the larger wood
en- frame Of the factory, four-story
structure. quivered and then the rear
| portion Of it collapsed. In fraction
| Of a second this section of the great
| building had been transformed into
| a mass Of iron and wood wreckage,
| in the midst of which human beings
were pinioned. In another moment
| fire had broken out in the debris and
death by fire and suffocation became
the fate of scores Of the operatives.
When the boiler exploded it passed
! upward almost perpendicularly, tear
ing a passage as it went, killing many
on the way. After rising high in the
air, it descended half the distance,
| and then swerving northerly, tore its
way like some huge projectile through
dwelling house so feet away and
pierced another dwelling further along,
demolishing the latter structure. Here
| its course was stopped.
Scenes Of horror followed the
wrenching apart of the factory builda
ing. In the rear the three upper
floors, weighted as they were with
! heavy machinery, collapsed with o
crash that was heard for blocks. Men
and women operatives working in de-
partments OF this section, who were
busy at their machines, had time but
| to turn in an attempt to fee after
| the first dull roar, when the flooring
sank beneath them, and they were car
ried to the ground floor, crushed and
and bruised amid the mass OF debris.
Many fell into a veritable fiery fur
mace. In the sections OF the factory
which remained standing the opera.
tives were panic-stricken as they
sought to escape.
Many fed down the stairways and
reached the street; others ran to the
windows, the fire escapeSasin many
cases have been torn away by the
explosion. In desperation many jump.
ed from the second and third-story
windows to the ground and were dan
gerously injured. The crush on the
stairways resulted in numerous minor
injuries.
Instant death was the fate OF q
majority who went down with the
floors that collapsed. A large num-
ber of men and women who were
working near the supports were alive
| after the floors and walls fell.