The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-21
- the Asaociated Press. )

Brocton. Mass. March 20.-The eX-
plosion of $50 horsepower boiler
in r.. b. Grover & Company's large
four-story wooden shoe factory in the
CampeIo district today killed scores
of employees, injured half a hundred
others and destroyed property valued
at $3.50, 600.
At $50 o'clock tonight tho charred
! fragments of 4S bodies lay IN the
morgue and ia additional operatives
had not been accounted for. It is prob
able that the number of dead Will
never be known.
OF those missing, the police expect
that quite number VIII report tomor-
row. The death list is estimated at
from so to IS.
The entire Grover factory was re-
duced to ashes within an hour after
the explosions the three-story block
across the street. owned by Charles
II. Dahlborg, and five dwellings were
burned and several other small struc-
lures damaged The search of the
ruins was in progress the entire after
noon and was continued tonight
The explosion occurred shortly
after the operatives had settled down
warning. Suddenly the air vibrated
with the roar of an explosion. At
the same moment the large wooden
frame of the factory, a 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
Ts. 4
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 passage as IL went, killing many
on the way. After rising high in the
air, il descended half the distance, and
then swerving northerly, cut its way
like some huge projectile through a
dwlling house fifty feet away and
pierced another dwelling further
along, demolishing the latter struc-
ture. Here its course was stopped.
Many Fam Into Fiery Furnace
/ Scenes of horror followed the wrench
ing apart of the factory building In
the rear the three upper floors,
weighted as they were with heavy ma
chinery, collapsed with crash that
was heard for blocks. Men and wo-
men operatives working in depart
ments of this section who We're busy
at their machines, had time but TO
turn In an attempt to flee after the
first dull roar, when the flooring sank
beneath them and they were carried
to the ground floor, crushed 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-strucken as they
sought escape. Many fed down the
stairWays and reached the street,
others ran TO the windows, the fire
escapes In many cases having been
torn away by the explosion. In des-
peraion many jumped from the Sec
ond and third story windows TO the
ground and We're dangerously injured.
The crush on the stairways resulted In
numerous minor injuries.
Scarcely had the rear portion Of
the structure collapsed when a tongue
of flame started up from the boiler
pit, and reaching out as il ascended,
communicated with the splintered
wreckage. and Immediately after
with the standing wallis soon the en-
tire factory was IN flames
Cries Or Agony ana Fear.
instant death was the fate of MANY
who went down with the floors that
collapsed. a large number Of men
and women who were working near
the supports We're alive after the floors
and walls fell. From these unfOrtun-
ates, thrilling cries og agony and terror
went up. Almost all had been caught
between broken timbers, lighter wood
en- wreckage and heavy pieces OF ma
Continued on Page Two.)