Arizona republican., 1910-03-12
Relatives of Victims of Ex-
 pIosion Demand s75,O00 THREE ACTIONS BEGUN
Negligence of the Company Alleg e d in Leaving a Charge of Ninety Kegs of Powder, With Fuse At tachcd, Unguarded.

Three damage suits against the Ray Consolidated Copper company growing out Of tlic explosion "u ih" prrperty of th. Ray Consolidated Copper c"iupsnr. near Kelvin "U Fcbru5r- e "f this wear were filed yesterday at Florence. th" papers having been sent over by Kibbcy. Ben nett aud Bennett frr the plaintiffs who arc relatives or victims Of that dieaster on" iS N Coleman of Salt Lake. father ur E P Coleman. a mining engineer. James Frcelsud "f Salt Lake. father "f ". II. Free iaUd. mining engineer. and Mrs. A- r Griffen of Phoenix. mother Of J. C. Griffeu. assistant civil engineer.
 other victims Of the disaster were J F. Joyce 0f Lewiston. Me. a civil engineer. Walter C. Krenz. q mining engineer. \. l.. Bicbcr Of Cleveland. C.. mining engineer. and II. II. Ly- all InOtOrmans lt iS not stated whether other damage suits will fol- low.
 The mcn were killed while riding a motor ear past a point where blast had Deen placed for the purpose of opening or widening the roadway be- tween Kelvin and Kay
 In each Of these suits tine sum Of S2j.091 is asked and the actions are based upon information Of the circumstances preceding the explosion alleged to have developed since the story of the disaster was published.
 II was supposed st tine time that the blast had been placed that morning and that one Of them had been miss ed. The foreman set off the fuse and it vas stated had warned the Occu- pants Of the motor car as well as others passing along the road of the imminence of the explosion.
 The information .on which the plaintiffs are proceeding is that the blast had been there for weeks; that il consisted of ninety kegs Of black powder. that tunnel had been cut into the mountain and crosscut. form ing T'. The powder was put into the ends of the top of the IT
 That morning. the foreman passing along discovered the fuse. not the end of il for one end was concealed in the tamped tunnel and the other was buried under the dirt where wagons had been passing over it for weeks. The foreman knew nothing of the mighty storage of powder but sup posed that one end or the other of the fuse Vas connected with pot shot which had been missed. A pot shot" is comparatively small quan- tity of dynamite used to make hole for the storage of large quan- tity of coarse black powder. the kind used when mountains are to be torn down The foreman therefore did not expect violent explosion. After lighting the fuse he saw tcsmster approaching and warned him of the probability of the explosion. The tcamster stopped and after waiting four minutes. if is said the foreman told him that it was safe to proceed IT" is alleged to have said. Tt would nj do much damaSc. anyway The teamster went on.
 At the same time the motor car rushed into sight and when it was di- rcctly opposite the charge the cxpIo- sion occurred. The teamster at that moment was on line with the motor car and the center of the explosion but he was beyond the car on slightly lower ground. That is what saved him for tons oT rock. fragments of tho car and the disineuIbered bodies of the men were hurled over his head Just beyond him telegraph pole was cut off several feet above the ground
 The wagon was struck bv flying rock and so grcat was the force of the explosion that the wagon though heavily laden with oil. was turned around in the road. The teamster was not hurt Of young Griffen uothiug was ever found except ono forearm and his boots.
 Beyond the teamster but at some distance was woman driving a bug Ey. She was struck by smaller frag- ments of rOck--the bulk had gone bowling above her, but she emerged l covered with blood and enveloped in l fright of which it is said she has i not been able to remove all the wrap pings to this day and still talks some what incoherently of her experiences that Sundav noon. the noiscst and ] most tragic in Kelvin.