Connecticut western news., 1907-10-17

nalI IrOm Cne plant. The two WO- men hurried to the office after the first explosion to take the man away. But Monahau stopped at his post, and he was calmly sending messengers with orders to carry out the work of rescue ) when the magazine exploded. The of flee was a substantial frame structure, but it was wiped out to the founda- | tion
 The plant manufactured only blast | ing powder. There were six mills, and they went up in three explosions. First went the press mill, in which about fifty men were at work. That was at 9:15 o'clock. The explosion was terrific, but slight in comparison with those that followed. Two glazing mills and cap mill went together in a few minutes. Then in about the same in- terval two coining mills blew up, and 1t was not until an hour and a half afterward that the magazine exploded. There is no doubt it was the intense heat from the blazing wreckage of these mills that fired the magazine. Rush to Open Saves Lives.
 The comparatively small loss of life Is attributed to the fact that with the first explosion every one In the town hurried into the open. Had the maga- zine exploded with the families in the houses it is believed the greater part of the population would have been killed. a.....
 The mills stood on broad stretch of mil Of hn and in all POO men were employed there. For more than six months the plant had been operating extra shifts, and never before was there so vast quantity of powder stored in the maga- zine. There were to have been heavy shipments in the next two weeks.
 In desperation the uninjured work men and their wives and children worked to take the dead and dying which stood in semicircle half around the magazine. The first three explo- sions were heavy enough to rip the solid stone structure from top to botz tom and split the floors so that the buildings collapsed and at once took fire. The rescuers, unmindful of their own safety, swarmed over the ruins, and many men were carried out before the heat began to drive the rescuers back -s.z
 Train Hurled From Siding.
 In fact, there was not a spot within the circle of mile in diameter which was not swept with fearful force by the explosion. A Big Four railroad train was on a siding half a mile from the plant. Between the train and the magazine lay high, broad hill, yet the train was hurled from the tracks, the cars were thrown together, and even the ponderous locomotive was toppled over. Charles Wells, the engineer. was crushed in the wreck and may die. Fire broke out, and the train was al- most destroyed.
 The Methodist and Christian church es, two new buildings of limestone, were razed The depot was wrecked and the business heart of the town ob- liberated. Here new block, four sto- ries in height, lately had been finished. It went with all the rest. Every store and office in the town was deserted following the three preliminary ex- plosions, and the only life lost in a private house was that of an old man, an invalid, who was watching the fire as he lay in bed from a window, when the magazine blew up and sent the house down on him.
 A dense cloud of smoke went up from the magazine and hung in the air for half an hour. It spread out so that for few minutes it darkened the sky. The atmosphere was thick with sulphurous fumes, and for time there was difficulty in breathing. The maga- zine proved effective in extinguishing the fire, or, rather, in removing the chance for one. The big piles of wreck | age marking the ruins of the different mills were scattered far and wide, and the fire was literally blown out. Here and there a burning timber might be found, but there was no other material for the blaze to feed on.
 Looked Like a Battlefield.
 | When the relief trains arrived from | Terre Haute and Brazil the site of the plant looked like a battlefield. The | town itself, while presenting desolate | sight, was without the supreme trag- | edy of mangled dead and wounded To all sides of the plant lay bodies and survivors. There were more than 400 unable to rise, and there still were many unconscious. Nothing had been done to relieve the sufferers Those l who had regained their senses and found strength to struggle to their feet wandered about dazed and with out initiative to help their fellows. The two trains mustered twenty phy- sicians and fifteen nurses, with about fifty men who went as volunteers. The work of gathering up the injured was done with dispatch, as the ruin wrought was so complete that few were pinned by wreckage. --..--
 The plant alone was valued at S1OO,- 900. In nine years seventeen men have been killed in the place. Trouble had been experienced in the last few days with the shaft in one of the glazing