The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1912-03-19
Is KILLED IN A
BIG EXPLOSION
At San ANTONIO
BIG BOILER IN SOUTHERN PAcL
FIG ENGINE EXPLODED WITH
SERIOUS RESULTS.
Between Twenty and Thirty Were
Killed Outright, While Large Mum
Der Was More or Less Injured
Four Large Buildings Wrecked.

Der Was More or Less Injured.
Four Large Buildings Wrecked.
l.
San Antonio, Tex, March 1S.-Be-
tween twenty and thirty men were
killed outright and fifty injured in an
explosion of the boiler OF one of the
Southern Pacific railroads finest To-
comotives in the yards here today.
Many of the dead and injured were
strikebreakers, mostly from the North,
who came last fall, at the beginning
of the Southern Pacific shopmen' s
strike, which has not yet been set
tied.
A public investigation into the ex-
plosion will begin Immediately.
Four buildings forming a square
about the tracks where the locomo-
tive stood were wrecked
The drivers and bed plates of the
locomotives were practically all of the
great pieces of mechanism not hurled
into various directions. The money
loss has not yet been estimated.
Although it is known that the boiler
exploded, the reason for the boilers
Blowing UP hasn't been ascertained,
and an official investigation will be
held.
Six Have Been Identified.
Up to late hour today the identi-
fed dead were:
j. BURDY, machinist, Pittsburg,
Pa.
- MANSKER, SR., foreman of
blacksmith shop.
BRADY, machinist.
w. o. HEEBLER, air man.
One unidentified negro hostIer.
Eighteen bodies had been recovered
from the wreckage within two hours
after the explosion, and more were
being removed constantly while near
by stores and buildings were filed
with the injured.
The army hospital corps here was
rushed to the yards and police am
balances and Y. M. G. A. workers were
organized into rescue bands to dig
out the dead and to try to save the
fast ebbing lives of the wounded. So
mangled were some victims that
there seemed no hope of piecing the
fragments of their bodies together
sufficiently to identify them.
The locomotive boiler was blown
three blocks. The roundhouse and the
copper shops were practically demol-
ished, and the men working in them
were hurt by falling walls.
Probably the first one of the dead
to be identified was Walter Jourdan,
an engineer, who was in the cab when
the locomotive exploded.
Strikebreakers have been employed
at she Southern Pacific shops here
ever since the shopmen's strike be-
gan several months ago. After the
explosion, rumors in the downtown
section of San Antonio were that dy-
Mantle was the cause, but an investi-
CATION at the yards showed no indi-
cation that such rumors had started,
or were believed there.
The victims were said to be largely
men who had been employed as
strikebreakers. San Antonio has been
practically free from violence through
out the shopmen's strike.
The men at work in the shops were
in the majority of cases from out Of
the city, being brought here by the
Do h0 cfril
inaugurated.
Explosion Was Terrific.
The locomotive was standing in the
yards near the shops and the explo-
sion came without warning. Parts Of
the rCundhouse collapsed and several
small buildings in the shops enclos-
ure were wrecked, including part Of
the machine shops. Engines in the
roundhouse were smashed as if hit
with huge mallets. The roundhouse
caught fire for a time. The half-ton
Jacket of the exploded locomotive
boiler dropped between two houses on
Duval street, while the tender was
catapaulted several hundred feet and
twisted into a big shapeless chunk OF
steel.
Windows were blown many blocks,
and the entire city felt the jar. Wild
confusion followed the explosion, de-
spite an almost paralyzing horror
caused by the condition of many OF
the dead.
fragments Of many bodies were
picked up for blocks around the shop
Yards. Bodies and parts OF bodies
a.a ,,,t nf the rrreckaRe in