The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-09
Awful Disaster 0vertakes Great
Powder Plant at Hull,
Quebec.
HOSPITALS ARE CROWDED
WITH INJURED VICTIMS
Crowd From Baseball Park Is
Caught in Blast and Many
Are Moved Down.

OTTAWA, Ont. May S.-An explosion
today wrecked the plant OF the General
Explosives company of Canada near Hull
Quebec. killed fifteen persons and Injured
fifty others.
The force OF the explosion was terrible.
The country for miles around was laid
waste and many small dwellings in the
city Of Hull on the side nearest the scene
OF the explosion were fiattened TO the
ground
baseball game was in progress short
distance from the powder works about 6
o'clock this evening The teams were
playing the last inning 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.
Warning 10 the danger came TO the
onlookers in two minor explosions soon
after the fire got we'll under way. A
shower OF sparks and fragments of the
wrecked building fell among the specta-
tors and there was a scurTying out OF
what was considered the danger zone
Some men in the crowd, aware Of the
possibilities OF the danger when the main
magazine was reached, pleaded with the
crowd To go still further back and many
needed the warning. Others, apparently
enjoying the element of danger In .he
spectacle stood within 1000 yards of ~
burning buildings. They were kept on
the qui vive by detonations that sent
showers of burning brands In all drec-
tionS.
The baseball game broke up and the
rest of the spectators and The players
rushed mp TO Join the crowd at the fire.
Powder Magazine Explodes.
II was then that the magazine eX~
ploded. There We're two stunning deton-
ations. Everything within a radius of
mile and a hnlf was torn and shattered.
Giant trees were snapped off close to
the earth; barns and dwelling houses
were converted Into kindling wood and
even In Ottawa four miles from the
scene, hundreds OF plate glass windows
were broken.
The scene where the crowd from The
ball game stood rcscynbled a battle field.
lieadless. armless and lcgless bodies were
lying about among scores OF unconscious
forms.
The silence that followed the final
death dealing blast was more terrifying
than the cries and means which came
with n return TO consciousness OF the in
jured.
The terrific shock brought thousands of
terror stricken people into the streets OF
the town. Some thought il was an earth
quake. while others cried out that the
comet had struck the earth. Hundreds
of chimneys were toppled over and there
is scarcely whole window left In the
northeastern section OF the city.
Houses Are Shattered.
The first call for aid from the hospitals
and the police came from the section
of the city nearest the magazines. There
it was found that fully forty small frame
dwellings, had been shattered and that
Elany injured people were imprisoned in
the wrecEage.
II was fully an hour and half after
the explosion that word came into the
city of the disaster. Ambulances and au,
tomobiles were rushed TO the scene and
the seriously Injured were carried TO lhc
Hull hospitals until there was room for no
more and then they were brought 10 OF
tawa.
In this city, four miles from the scene
of the explosion the terror inspired was
scarcely loss than that at Hull The
earth trembed. buildings shook and hum
dreds OF windows were shattered. The
great cloud Of smoke that mounted In
column over Hull quickly indicated the
true eause OF the terrifying shock.
Rideau Hall. the official home OF Earl
Grey and the buildings on Parliamentary
hill caught the full force of the cNplo-
sion, being two miles nearer ihe pow
der plant than is the main section OF the
city.
Every window on one side OF Rideau
Hall was blown out and two great stone
chimneys toppled oyer on the u ROOT OF - me ne
building The parliament buildings ware
also badly damaged.
Rideau Hall is still occupied by Earl
Grey and his family The whole wee, wee re- e.
The street They were soon assured That
there was no further danger, AS soon
as Earl Grey learned the exctnL OF inc
disaster he ordered a detachment OF
troops sent across the river 10 help the
authorities.
Stones Hurled Though Air.
The buildings in which the main eNTlo-
sion occurred was built OF solid stone, the
walls being two feet thick. Fragments
OF stone weighing up to half ton were
yhot through the air for quarter oi
mile shattering the frame dwellings, ol
worxingmcn which run 10 Nlthln IN
eighth OF a mile OF tho factory.
In a home just north OF the WORKS. Two
sisters were killed while sitting at me
supper table. John BlaDchiield was Su
ting with his wife In the door oi nlS
home when n fragment OF rock killed nm
hut left her unharmed. ihe heaa vi "
boy was cut clean from his BODY,
Louis McCaDn, q laborcr was clusno55
by a falling fragment, He was Stattru
for an Ottawa hospital in an nutomop,e
but when IL was seen that ne was uS
lne- the car was stopped in iroDt oi tlie
Roman Catholic cathedral There. stiina-
ing on the steps n priest adminlstered ,nc
In 81 sacrament a few minutes before NC
Cam died. The electric lights were dis
ablcd and the city of Hull was lett III
darkness This added TO the CONFUSION anu
the difficulty OF locating victims IN,
Tho Ottawa hospitals are cro"ueo WIZ VIZ.
Injured and IL Is almost certain that sou,e
or these arO 90 severely hurt llat lnS