The Hattiesburg news., 1910-05-09
Miles OF COUNTRY
we're Laid WASTE
Crowd Leaves Pleasure Park To Wit
ness Spectacular Fire.-Magazine
Lets go With Terrific Force.-vie-
Tins Caught in Blast.
Special to The Net0S.


Ottawa, Ontario, May 9.-An eXplo-
sion which occurred late yesterday
afternoon wrecked the plant of the
General Explosives Company of Can
ada, situated a mile from Hull, Que
bee. and four miles from this city,
killed between ten and fifteen
persons and injured scores of others.
The force of the explosion was terri
flying. The country for miles around
was laid waste and many small build
ings in the city of Hull, on the side
nearest the scene of the explosion,
were fattened to the ground.
4 baseball game was in progress a
short distance from the powder works
about o'clock yesterday evening.
The teams were playing the last in
ming, and when a fire was seen in one
of the small buildings of. the powder
plant the crowd began to swarm up
the hill to get a better view of the
blaze Warming of the danger came
to the onlokers in two minor ex-
plosons soon after the fire got well
under way. A shower of sparks and
fragments of the wrecked building
fell among the spectators, and there
was "a scurrying out of what was con-
sidered the danger zone.
Some men in the crowd, aware of
the danger when the main magazine
was reached, pleaded with the crowd
to go still further back, and many of
them needed the warning. Others,
apparently enjoying the element of
danger in the spectacle, stood within
1000 yards of the burning building.
They were kept on the qui vive by
detonations which sent showers of
burning brands in all directions.
The basball game broke up and the
remainder of the spectators and the
players rushed up to join the crowd at
the fire. 1t was then that the main
magazine exploded.
There were two stunning detona-
tons. Everything within a radius of
a mile and a half was torn and shat
tered. Giant trees were snapped off
close to the earth: barns and dwell
ings were converted into kindling
wood and over in ottawa, rour miles
from the scene, hundreds of plate.
glass windows were broken.
The scene where the crowd from
the baseball game stood resembled a
battlefield.
Headless, armless and legless bod
les were lying about scores of un
conscious forms. To the few who
retained a flicker of consciousness il
appeared as though more than 10C
had been killed.
The silence which followed the fina
death-dealing blast was more terri
flying than the cries and means which
came with a return to consciousness!
of the badly injured.
The terrific shock brought thou
SduuS Ol ltTGOT-SiIiChcn pCOple iul'
the streets of Hull. Some thought 1
was an earthquake, while others criet
out that the comet had struck tn,
earth. Hundreds of chimneys wer,
toppled over and there is scarcely |
whole pane of glass left in the north
eastern section of the city.
The first call for aid from the hos
pitfalls and the police came from tn
section of the city nearest the mag
azines. There it was found that full
forty small frame dwellings had bee
shattered and many injured peopl
were imprisoned in the wreckage. Tn
Police and Fire Departments wer
Joined by scores of volunteers in tn
work of rescue.
| It was fully an hour and a ha