River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-09-14
| AN AWFUL BLAST
KILLS THIRTY
BIG POWDER PLANT IN PENN
SYLVANIA BLOWS UP.
TEN BUILDINGS IN ATOMS
Fragments of Human Flesh Strewn
for Many Rods-Shock of Elk
plosion Is Felt for a
Score of Miles.

Fairchance, Pa, Sept. 11.-A1 ten
buildings of the Rand powder plant
were torn to atoms, and probably 81
men were killed, scores were injured,
many seriously, thousands OF lives
were imperiled, and dozens of houses
were overturned by series OF terrific
explosions Saturday morning, which
shook the country for 80 miles around.
| OF the 80 men who went to work at
the mills in the morning, 10 are known
to be dead. 1t is believed that all
have persisted. Thirteen have been
| identified. Many of them leave large
i families The dismembered parts of
! the dead in many instances were burn
ed. Identification of many was made
/ by clothing alone Many who were
near the works at the time were badly
hurt, and the death list hourly is
growing. Scores of persons in the vii
| lage within a radius of half mile
were fearfully wounded.
i There were seven explosions in all.
Every one of the ten buildings was
totally demolished. Not a vestige of
them remains. The first three were
not as serious as the last four. Then
the packing house, pressing room, and
magazine blew up, followed by two cars
of dynamite standing on nearby rail-
road siding, which were set off by the
conclusion from the powder mill ex-
blossoms. Two other cars remained in
tact, and it was with difficulty that they
were moved to place of safety. Fear
| ing that they would blow up, the work
of rescue was abandoned temporarily.
The lives of more than thousand
men were imperiled The debris that
was strewn over the ten acres OF
ground where the plant was located
took fire soon after the explosion and
added it's terrors to the disaster.
Flesh Strewn Everywhere.
Small pieces of bodies were picked
UP all over the place. These were not
collected together, and many sections
of human beings were thrown back
into the debris where they were found.
Almost a half mile mountainward
from the plant an Office oversleeve, wet
with blood. was picked up. One little
|
of mans hand. All day at short IN
| tervals searchers would bring in Bits
of bodies or clothing. Some of these
finds were carried in dishpans or dam
aged powder cans with which the
ground is strewn for acres. The hole
where the magazine exploded is about
Is feet deep, and so yards square. The
earth, black and soggy, is thrown up
in huge chunks, some of them weigh
ing hundred pounds.
Train Nearly Blown from Track.
/ A passenger train on the Baltimore
& Ohio railroad, northbound from
Morgantown to Connellsville, which
was passing the works when the first
explosion occurred was almost thrown
from the track by the conclusion,
which broke all the windows and
caused a panic among the passengers,
several of whom were injured by fly
ing glass. Opposite the powder works
the tracks of the Pennsylvania and
Baltimore & Ohio railroads have been
blown I'D. For mile around Fair
chance buildings have been blown over
and at UniOntown, Pa, seven miles
from the explosion, hundreds of win
dows have been broken. A large sky
| light in the courthouse at Uniontown
was smashed and there was panic
among the occupants to escape from
| the building. Damage was done at
Connellsville, Mount Pleasant and
Scotdale, and in hundreds of homes
the dishes fell from the cupboards and
pictures were thrown from the walls.
| Twelve bodies removed from the
ruins of the Rand powder works are:
Homer HUMPHREYS, Clyde Woods,
James Breakiron, George Lewellyn.
| William Lewellyn, Elmer Hughes,
Fred Walterstraw, Fred Walterstraw,
Jr., Charles Bartlett, Charles Elfritz,
Frank Ryland and Walter Hughes.
1t is hard to determine the cause Of
! the explosion, and it's origin may never
be known. Nor is the point at which
] the first explosion occurred known GER
/ tainly. 1t is supposed to have taken
| place, however. in the mixing mill, re-
sulting from a spark caused by a
workman striking a tool against a
| piece of metal.
While a statement of the probable
loss cannot be secured from those di-
rectly interested in the plant. it is said
a conservative estimate places that to
the Rand company at several hundred
| thousand dollars Aside from this
/ there is the extensive losses to private
/ houses and buildings in all surround