Golden Valley chronicle. (Beach, Billings County, N.D.) 1905-1916, 1907-01-17
DISASTROUS EXPLOSION OCCURS
IN STEEL WORKS At PITTS.
BURG.
INJURED IN P|T|FUl SHAPE
cRAzEp eY INJURIES ONE YOUTH
SEEKS DEATH IN POT OF
METAL.

Pittsburg, Jan. II. - a disastrous
explosion occurred last night at the
Eliza furnaces of the Jones & Nc.
Laughlin Steel works. when large
quantity of gas, which had accumu.
lated at the base of the furnace, be-
came ignited. Tons of molten metal
were showeled around the furnace for
a radius OF forty feet. Out of IL force
of thirty-five men employed at the fur.
mace when the explosion occurred.
three of them, John Cramer, Andrew
Fea,herka and Gustave Chester, have
been taken to the morgue, their bod
les horribly mutilatea by the fire.
Seven mel>Ere in hospitals. fatally III.
jured, and twenty-tour others have
not been accounted for.
Only One Turns Up.
While the mill officials are inclined
TO believe that all of the missing men
were not cremated in the molten met
al. nothing definite is KNOWN as to their
present whereabouts. Only one man,
George Knox. has turned up since the
explosion. and Knox says everything
happened so quick that he doubts
whether the men escaped. Chief Pc
ter Snyder of the Fourth fire district
was seriously injured while directing
the firemen to extinguish the fire
which followed the explosion.
Even Police Kept Out.
The officials at the mill refused to
allow any one to enter the yard where
the furnace is located. All informa.
ton was refused to newspaper men,
the officials saying that later they
might issue statement. a heavy
guard of foreign workmen was placed
at the yard entrance, and even the pc.
lice were powerless to gel past tho
foreigners.
Forty Men Dead or Missing.
Pittsbnrg, Jan. 12.-Partial investi-
cation to ascertain the number of ia.
talities that occurred at the Eliza fur
naces. of the Jones & l.aughlin Steel
company last night, when an accnmu-
lation Of gas exploded, bursting the
base of the large furnaces and shower.
ing tons of molten metal over about
forty men, was completed last night.
and shows that the bodies of twelve
men, horribly n1utilated, have been
recovered. from fifteen to twenty men
are missing. it being generally be-
lieved their bodies were consumed by
the hot metal, and ten men are in hos.
pitfalls, terribly burned, four of them
expected to die momentarily.
Engulfed by Fiery Metal.
1t is doubtful whether the number Of
men killed will ever be known. From
present indications over fifteen men
were caught like rats in trap by the
fiery metal which flowed over their
bodies to depth of six feet. No trace
Of them, it is said, will ever be found.
OF the dead bodies now in the morgue,
several are minus arms, legs and heads.
while the others are burned and twist
ed beyond recognition.
T. In Pitiful Condition.
The condition of the injured is pitt.
full. A number OF men have their
eyes burned out, and others were so
badly injured that amputatiOn OF arms
and limbs was necessary. A grue-
some story is told by Deputy Coroner
Laidley, who says one foreigner, ap.
parently a youth, became crazed by
his injuries and before he could he
prevented leaped into pot of molten
met al and was incinorated