The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1912-11-28
SEVEN DIE, SEVEN
MISSING IN BLAST
Starch House of Corn Products
Refining Plant Is Wrecked.
TWENTY-SlX ARE INJURED
Fire Breaks Out in Ruins Adding
Horror to Disaster at Waukegan,
lll.-Most Of Victims Are
Foreigners.

FoTci9ncTS.
Waukegan, Ill.,, Nov 26.-Seven are
dead, seven missing and supposedly
buried under tons of burned debris,
and twenty-six are suffering in the
Jane McAlister hospital with terrible
burns and injuries, to which probably
half Of them will succumb, as the re-
suit of an explosion in the starch house
of the Corn Products Refining COM
pany plant, on the outskirts Of Wauke-
ately following the explosion, reduced
the building to ashes.
1.-THE dead:
Frank Stanley, thirty-four, laborer;
married.
Joseph Zalenak twenty eight, labor
er; unmarried.
Charles Tomalis, thirty. married.
Martin Slater, assistant superin-
tendent; married.
Charles Pamleas.
John Adams.
Peter Dangala.
the men had returned to work from
luncheon and produced defamation
that shook buildings and stopped
clocks within a radius of a mile. Fire
bells and whistles flashed the signal
of the accident far and wide and fire
men, citizens and doctors hurried to
the scene.
Mangied Men Rush From Building.
Men, blind and bleeding, with flesh
hanging III shreds, stunned and tot
tering. rushed from the wrecked build
ing. They were hurried into waiting
automobiles and rushed to the hos
pital. Deputy Coroner Conrad was at
the scene within ten minutes after the
explosion and took charge of the res
cuing work.
The fire. which broke out within
few minutes after the explosion, made
the work of rescue difficult. Most of
the employees of the starch house are
Firms and Austrians and the scenes
were heartrending as the doomed
men, pinned under wreckage with the
fire gaining fast upon them, pleaded
in foreign tongue for the help that
could not be given t.em.
Relatives at Scene.
Wives and children of employees
gathered by scores and pleaded with
firemen and bystanders to help them
rescue their fathers and husbands.
When the fire was at its height and all
those rescued whom it was thought
possible to rescue, two men were seen
on one Of the upper floors. Their lips
were moving, but their piteous cries
for help were drowned in the cracking
of the flames; Only for a moment
were they seen. Then the floors gave
way and carried them into the heart
of the soething flames.
Calls were sent to North Chicago for
additional help in fighting the fire and
every physician in Lake county was
summoned post haste to the hospital
Many prominent Waukegan women
depleted their homes of bedding and
anything that could be used for band
ages and hurried to the hospital to
volunteer their assistance.
Blast Comes Without Warning.
The explosion came without warn
ing and men were trapped like rats in
the wrecked and burning building.
About forty employees were in the
structure at the time, according to re-
ports at the hospital though Superin-
tendent Charles Eberg states that but
thirty had any business there at that
time.
Spontaneous combustion, an ever
present danger in starch houses, was
given as the cause OF the explosion.
The company had similar explosion
about nine years ago in which two
lives were lost.
Martin b. Slater, assistant superin-
tendent, was at the plant and a few
minutes before the explosion rushed
into the building. Three minutes later
he was hurried 10 his home in n dying
condition. The fact that Slater en-
tered in haste just before the accident
has led to the belief that a warning of
danger had been sounded and he had
gone in to investigate.
The loss by fire is placed by Super
intendent Ebert at 100000, fully GOV.
cred by insurance. 1t was a five-story
brick structure and has been used for
a starch plant many years. 1t was
only through the heroic efforts OF the
firemen, aided by volunteers and en-
ployes of the plant, that the com.
pany's plant, the second largest In the
world was saved
Brooklyn Mil Ruined.
New York, Nov. 26.-The Union Sui. |
phur mill In Brooklyn, belonging to the
Corn Products company, was wrecked
by an explosion in which 10 men were
crushed and burned, but luckily none
lost their lives
The explosion is said to have been
due 10 the swapping of a bolt on a sui.
phur grinder.
One OF the men standing nearest to
the machine was hurled straight in
the air, his skull fractured against
the ceiling. The others were flung in
all directions to the walls.
Eight clerks in the shipping Office /
on the river side OF the building |
made desperate attempt to save tho |
records, but n second explosion fol |
lowed the first and the wall went down
into the river The eight men were
thrown INFO the water.
Nav Re Mo lpauytraI D,u