The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1916-08-03

Crews Are Among the Missing.
Western, Newspaper Union News Service.
New 'York.-An unknown number Of
dead and injured; $5O,0OO,OOO in prop
erty loss; five states shaken, and mil
lions of persons within a radius of
hundred miles frightened to distrac.
tion, is part of the damage wrought
by the explosion of war materials near
Jersey City. The material was await
ing shipment to the Entente Allies.
While only one body has been recov-
cred, the loss of life is believed to
have been heavy. In the excitement
following the explosion, little or no ef-
fort was made by anyone to take a
census of those known to have been
in the vicinity. The disaster was by
far the worst of its kind that has ever
taken place in the country.
Black Tom Island, an area of re-
claimed land which projects into New
York Bay from the Jersey shore, i'm
mediately behind the Statue of Lib
erty, which was damaged, was the
scene of the explosion. Six Lehigh
Valley Railroad piers and the Nation.
al Storage warehouses, comprising "a
four-story brick buildings, about hun
dred feet deep, were the principal suf-
ferers. Between $25,00O,OO0 and $780,
100000 worth of property belonging to
these two companies were hurled into
the air by the series of explosions.
Thirteen storage warehouses and their
entire contents were blown up, IS
loaded freight cars were burned, a
dozen barges and their contents burn.
ed or blown up, and probably three
tugboats sunk The Jersey Central
Railroad pier, half a mile from the
source of the explosion, also was dam
aged considerably.
These tugboats, with an aggregate
crew of "a men, are listed as missing
These boats are the Geneva, a Lehigh
Valley boat, and the Bridgeton and
Ithaca, Jersey Central boats. When
last seen the little vessels we're brave
ly forcing their way into the blazing
barges in an effort to remove them
Then occurred the big explosion. II
is feared they were torn to pieces and
lost with their crews. About a million
dollars worth of damage was done on
Bedloes Islands and Ellis Island suf'
fered severely. Countless homes and
places of business running up into the
| hundreds of thousands were more or
less damaged in Jersey City, HobOken,
Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brook.
lyn, Bayonne, Staten Island and ada
| cent cities and towns. Smashed plate
glass windows was one of the princi.
pal losses suffered. A conservative
estimate of this loss is $1,500,000. The
cause of the earth-shaking catasthro-
phe was the explosion of hundreds of
tons of high explosives on the "explo'
sive pier" of the Lehigh Valley Rail.
road. The origin of the blaze which
caused ruin and death has not yet been
established.
Where the Fire Started.
This fire, as nearly as can be es-
tablished from eye witnesses, began
either in a freight car on the "explo'
sive pier" or on barge moored to
the pier. The Lehigh Valley Railroad
Company, in an official statement
places the blame on a barge owned
by an independent towing company
which, against orders, had moored tC
the pier. The railroad charges the
| fire began on this barge. Some eye
witnesses assert the confagration
started on a freight car. A still alarm
to the Jersey City fire department
brought several companies. They had
considerable distance to travel, the
scene of the fire being about mile
out on the meadows. The fire engines
were not able to get close to the fire
and long lines of hose had to be
stretched. The Jersey City firemen
with the assistance of several railroad
tugs and employees on the premises
valiently fought the fire for two hours
but it grew beyond their control.
Probably more than 100 fully loaded
| lEelSHI Cars, dOouI d uOASh VI So Gon
tanning nitro-cellulose, shrapnel and
high explosive three-inch shells were
stalled in the range of the spreading
blaze. Though several drill engines
were available, only one could be
used at a time to haul the cars tc
safety. Suddenly the flames leapeG
to five cars loaded with nitro-cellulose
high explosive. The entire five car
loads exploded almost simultaneously
More than half dozen of the ware
houses were destroyed. The low par
of Manhattan and Brooklyn were heav
lily shal en-.