Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-19
TWO MEN KILLED
Lighled Lantern Sci Fire 10 Gas
 Leaking From a Defective
 ,-.- .> ,' NnIun ... ..- v0lvE
TOWN WAS SHAKEN UP


 ing from a defective valve on the main connecting two gas holders with machine for making illumin- ating gass in a small structure on the banks of the Pennington river, this morning ignited from lantern in the hands of a workman, and in a terrific explosion which shook up the entire village, Thomas O'Con- nell, the gas maker, and Michael Donovan, his assistant, were instant ly killed to-day, and George Gagnon, the helper, who held the lantern, was blown out of the building in a sheet of flame and mortally hurt. The structure was demolished the wall of a nearby factory was torn down and scores of houses in the upper village lost, all their window glass. The holders contained $500 cubic feet and the other about 40,- 900, and the smaller one went up first. O'Connell and Donovan were in a pit eight feet in depth between the two containers trying to stop a leak in, the main valve. Gagnon stood at the top of the pit holding a lantern. John J. Keeley, who had worked in the plant for forty years, says that this was the first time he had ever seen lighted lantern with in the building. Usually when he pairs were made the lantern was hung outside the window which ov- erlooked the pit, but this morning Gagnon carried it inside, whether by instruction or not it is not known. The gas plant was in the yard of the Mt Vernon and Woodbury Cotton Duck Co, the main office of which is in Baltimore. The plant was for merly used by the Greenwood Man ufacturing Co. -
 The gas containers were in frame structure 60x80 on the, edge of the river bank, while the gas retorts and furnaces were in a brick building nearby. Portions of the gas holders and the frame structure were carried into the river while one wall of the gas house. and a part of the factory wall were torn down by the concus- sion. No others were in the gas house than the three men mentioned. Miss Elizabeth Lizotte, who lives on the hill nearby. says she looked out of the window immediately after the explosion and saw Gagnon running away with his clothing in a blaze. He hurled himself into a ditch of water, but the flames were not out when Miss Lizotte reached him with rug which she wrapped around him and extinguished the flames. Gagnon was picked up and hurried to a nearby house where he was at tended to, but his burns are so frightful that it was thought he would not live long. The bodies of O'Connell and Donovan were found in the pit. They were not mangled, but were blackened by flame. After the bodies had been viewed by Medi- cal Examiner Swett they were re- moved to the homes of relatives. O'Connell was 45 years of age, a widower with five children. while Donovan was about 60, single, and leaves brother and sister.
 It is stated that the men worked on the valve last night and not hay ing repaired it went into the pit this morning. Fire followed the explos- ion. but the village firemen quickly eXtinguished this. The town de- pended on this gas plant for it's il- lUminant. and the only resource now are two private gas plants in the vil- lage. The financial loss is placed at S20,000 and it is believed there is insurance on the plant.