The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-01-27
FIRE AND AN ICY LAKE.
Take Lives of Fifty Men While
Working Mile From Shore.
MANY MANGLED BODIES FOUND

Powder Explosion in Lake Michigan
Traps Men by the Score Like Rats
in Hidden Tunnel and Lake Crib.
Others Cling to Blocks of Ice and
Are Saved. Death Stops an APP
peal for Aid. The Disaster an
Awful One.
CHlCAGO.-Blown to pieces by
exploding powder, burned to death
by the resultant fire or drowned in
the icy waters of Lake Michigan was
the fate today of fifty-three work
men, who were working on a sub
marine tunnel at a wooden crib a
mile and a half from shore.
The crib was used in the construc-
ton Of tunnel connecting with the
Southside shore of the city at Seven
ty-third street. 1t is known that
ninety-fve workmen were employed
in the crib and the connecting tunnel
at the time of the explosion, which
started the fire and blew or drove
men into the water. The work of
the destroying elements was begun
so unexpectedly and reaped it's har-
vest of dead and injured with such
swiftness that the contracting firm
of George w. Jackson and the res
cuers have been unable to arrive at
anything like an accurate list of
those who persisted, or of others who
escaped the fury of the flames or
the icy waters OF the lake.
Powder Explosion the Cause.
All Southside hospitals are filled
with injured men tonight. City fire
boats and tugs of the construction
company made frequent trips far
into the night to the scene of the
disaster through the heavy ice foes.
The disaster apparently had it's
origin in powder house of small
dimensions, situated about 100 yards
from the crib structure proper, but
at the same time being a part of the
general structure.
The dull defamation, muffled as it
was by the crunching of floating ice
against the crib and the atmosphere
laden with heavy fog, simply aroused
the attention of the workmen, &C
eording to survivors, and it was not
until the heat of the flames and the
sitting smoke penetrated the So
called living room" of the crib and
the tunnel beneath the waters of the
lake that the full import of the dis
aster dawned upon the workmen
cut off from quick succOr.
Cut Off Telephone Appeal.
One of the workmen, with a cooler
head than his fellows, made his way
through the smoke to a little in
closure in which was a telephone and
gave this hurried message to the
shore station:
The crib is on fire. For Gods
sake send help at once or We will be
burned alive. The tug
At this point communication
ceased, and through the fog an oc-
casional burst of flame and an I'M
mistakable OdOr of smoke made
known to the watchers on shore that
the telephone message was in earn
est.
The tug T. T. Moorford was the
first to begin rescuing the frenzied
workmen.
After several hours of heroic work
on the part of the rescuers thirty
nine workmen were rescued. When
the fire tug Conway and it's crew
had finally quenched the flames fifty
three bodies had been carried to the
shore and placed in morgues in South
Chicago awaiting Identification.
Acting on a report that men have
been seen clinging to ice foes some
distance from the scene of the disas-
ter Fire Chief Koran has ordered the
fire tug Illinois to patrol the lake
during the night in the hope of res
cue.
A Chicago woman is said to treat