Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-10
Fifteen Men Meet an Awful Fate
By Bursting of Blast Fur
mace at Pittsburg
BODIES BURNED IN TwINkLlNG
Kissing Metal Absorbs Both Flesh and
Bones of Observation-Disclosures Per-
form Brave Deed. When Disaster
overtakes Their Comrades = No
Trace Of unfortunates Left.

Pittsburg, Jan. 10.-At least Hlteeh
men met a horrible death last night
when a steel furnace broke and the
white hot metal enveloped them and
absorbed them. both blood and bone
as completely as if they had never ex-
listed.
Where the kissing metal overlook
them there now remains nothing but
slowly cooling mass, without the trace
of a human being. The substance of
the victims was absorbed almost in
stantly and either went skyward in
the form of vapor, or remained in the
metal, resolved into various chemical
elements no different from the product
which the men themselves were in the
habit of turning out.
Fifteen hundred tons of molten lime
stone, molten iron and coke poured out
Eliza group of furnaces of the Jones &
Laughlin company, without warning
and with hardly sound, tapping up
fleeing human beings in it's flood,
mere breath.
The fiery metal now lies a solid, in
ert mass, hiding we'll the secret Of it's
worst work, for of the thirty men who
were seen to fly before it's destroying
embrace, not more than fourteen are
accounted for. If they persisted in the
white hot fluid, their bodies are less
than the dust of the earth. OF flesh,
clothing and bones no trace will be
found.
The crew OF a hot-metal train had
narrow escape from death The
train was approaching the casting
house of No. furnace at which the
men were just preparing to take the
metal, when Conductor f. w. Bennett.
who had just entered the caboose.
heard the noise of the explosion and
promptly signalled the engineer to re-
verse.
In another moment the flames from
the mass Of hot metal were shooting
around the spot that would have been
filled by the train.
Bennett and the train crew ran to
the spot and helped a few of the fran
tic workmen out of the inferno of the
casting room. Their clothing were
masses of flames and in the few Sec
onds that elapsed several We're SO
badly burned that in being pulled out
the flesh on the hands and arms peeled
off.
Numbers OF mill men rushed to the
furnace and did what they could to
help their suffering mates. Several of
the men were thrown down and their
burning clothing ripped off with
knives, while the rescuers went as
close as possible to the heap Of glowing
metal and fuel which the furnace had
vomited and tried to drag out men
who were being burned before their
eyes.
One poor wretch was caught and
when the rescuers tried to pull him out
his body was so badly burned that his
arm was pulled out of the socket.
Those who were not killed outright
were terribly injured, and some be-
came delirious. One poor wretch, with
both eyes burned out. of his head and
his body dreadfully charred, began
singing a love song as he was being
taken to the hospital in the patrol wa
wagon.
Workmen in front of the furnace
men in the stock pits and laborers in
the vicinity of the furnace were caught
without warning. Others far enough
from the first rush of the contents of
the furnace had time to escape.
From the railroad tracks over the
stock pits brakemen on an ore train
could look right down on the white hot
lake beneath them. They saw men trip
ped by the legs by the insidious but
swift flow fall to the ground to be
burned to a crisp in an instant, witt
messed the setting fire of the stock
house, the office and the pipehouse and
climbed down to rescue whom they
could. Men who would rescue com
rades stood helpless No man could
wade thru the fiery pool
The firemen were early on the scene,
and Fire Chief Peter Snyder climbed
the wall built along Second avenue,
rushed across the railroad tracks and
fell thru the dump hole onto pile OF
ore. injuring his spine. His first words
we're to order second alarm and he
was then hurried to the hospital.
While responding to the alarm hose
carriage was struck by street car,
seriously injuring two of the firemen
and killing a horse. The windows of
the street car were shattered and
panic followed among the passengers.
Two women were injured by being
trampled.
The officials at the mill refused to
allow anyone to enter the yard where
the furnace is located. All information
was refused to newspaper men, the Of
ficials saying that later they might is
sue statement. A heavy guard of
foreign workmen We're placed at the
yard entrance and even the police were
powerIess to get past the foreigners.
Where the metal Is thinnest the
charred remains of four bodies have
been found Thirteen were badly
wounded, six of them mortally.
I. Seven Dead; Dozen Crippled.
Pittsburg, Jan. 1O.-As the result
of last nights explosion of molten met
al at the Eliz furnaces of the Jones &
Laughlin Company, Limited, the
charred trunks of seven men are at the
morgue, and twelve badly burned and
crippled foreigners are in hospitals.
while anxious workers are digging thru
the mass of steel and cinders for the
hodias of several more who are still