Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-05-21
THIRTY KILLED IN
BOILER EXPLOSION
Half Dozen of Over Fifty Injured
Are Expected to Die.
ARE FRIGHTFULLY MANGLED

Several Blocks From the Scene
Seven Boilers Explode at Plant Of
American Sheet and Tin Plate
company-cause Unknown.
Canton, o., May 18.-With a roar
that was heard three miles away a
battery Of ssven boilers at the plant
of the American Sheet and Tin Plate
Company exploded yesterday after
noon, killing from twenty to thirty
men and injuring about fifty. Among
the injured are a half dozen VINO, it is
said, will probably die. Others, physl-
clans say, cannot recover from their
injuries. The list of known dead is
as follows:
George A. Lemley, catcher;-
Roger, engineer; Charles Dewitt, en-
g%ineer; Walter Ringenberger, heater;
George Bole, heater; Charles Brown,
heater; j. Henry, catcher, North In
dustry; Jack Wheeland, Harry Baltz-
ley; Lothamer Dubler, heater, Wool
goof; unidentified man, ash wheeler;
f. Dunlapp, Charles Richards, uniden-
titled man.
Victims Friehtfully Mutiiated
The cause of the explosion is at
present unknown. The fireman and
are dead. No one else about the
plant who survived the accident can
give an explanation. One workman
says that he heard three distinct ex-
plosions in quick succession. They
came so close, however, that it was
all over in a minute. The force of the
conclusion was terrific. The big plant
is in such a state of ruin as to be
practically a total loss. A mere egg
shell of the building is left.
Identification of the men was diff
cult because many of them were so
mutilated that even the most intimate
friends Of the dead could not reeog-
nize the features.
Heads were blown from several
bodies. Arms and legs were torn from
the trunks. Fragments of bodies were
blown several squares from the scene
and bits of human flesh Rave been
picked up on porches and roofs OF
houses and in trees.
There were one hundred men at la
bor in the plant at the time of the
accident. But a dozen or so escaped
some injury.
The superintendent of the plant
last night put foremen and other trust.
ed men at work trying 10 make a list
of the dead, the injured and missing
The task proved difficult, because the
injured had been rushed to the three
hospitals of the city and thee was
nothing which can identify them.
Body Blown Through a House.
Members of the bereaved families
rushed frantically to the plant and
thence to hospitals and residences
near the ruined shops in an effort to
find a trace of their loved ones. 1t is
thought that all the dead had been re
moved from the debris.
The body of n man., unknown,
was blown through a house over sew
en- hundred feet from the PLAN. The
body entered the house from the east
side and continued in a straight line
through a bedroom and out the other
side of the house 10 Louise avenue.
The torso of another man was found
in the garden of a yard about five
hundred feet west of the scene, arms,
legs and parts of bodies wer strewn
about the neighborhood.
The bodies of seven men mutilated
beyond recognition We're found in the
north end of the mill.
For Gods sake hit M on the head
and kill me-" cried one workman to a
man who found him. The injured man
had an arm torn off and a great hole
in his side.
The plant had five mills. All the
employees working at mills one. two,
three and four were either killed or
injured, while the men in mill No, s.,
farthest from the boilers, escaped seri-
Gus injury,