The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1916-09-06
FATAL EXPLOSION
RAILROAD MEN KILLED AND IN
JURED AT MITCHELL.

Havoc created by the death dealing
explosion yesterday morning OF an
acetylene gas tank in the Milwaukee
railway roundhouse was witnessed by
r. A. Lyon, Of Fort Dodge, Ia, sales
man for Johnson & Baird. wholesale
shoe dealers, who is in Madison to-
day, a guest at the Lake Park hotel.
Although standing two blocks
from the eruption, which almost in
stantly snuffed out three lives and
probably fatally injured others. Mr..
Lyon plainly felt the conclusion
caused by the shock. He told that
brick and frame buildings about him
trembled as il being rocked by an
earthquake, causing a near panic
among hundreds of persons who were
unable to account for the terrific
blast. MIR. Lyon told that fragments
of the body of one of the men killed
were blown a distance of twenty
yards or more. Ed Friendt. an eX-
pert welder, who was one of those to
lose his life, had arrived in the city
only a few hours before the explosion
occurred.
Mitchell, Sept. 6-Three men are
dead and five are in a local hospital,
two so badly injured that they are
not expected to live. as the result of
the explosion of a gas welding ma
chine in the Milwauee railroad shops
at s O'Clock yesterday morning. The
shock Of the blast was heard for sew
eral miles and the shops and round
house structure were practically
wrecked.
The dead are:
Ed Friendt, Of Minneapolis. weld
or, body blown into fragments; jim
Borelas, a Bulgarian, fire builder.
scalp torn off and injured internally
and John Bandleman. a boiler maker,
burned.
The injured are:
Myron Schramm, machinists' APP
prentice. Geo. V. Schiller, carpenter;
Byron Schirmer, machinists' helper:
j. Shanahan. machinist. and A. ID.
Corse. machinist. Schirmer is seri-
ously burned and scalded.
Slate from the roof Of the shops
was hurled a distance of a block and
cut the clothes of railroad employees
standing on the station platform.
Windows of the buildings in the
wholesale district for a radius of two
blocks were broken. Plate glass was
cracked IN one hotel and chimneys
rocked all over the city. Four loco
motives in the roundhouse were
buried under the debris from the eX-
plosion.
Friendt. who is married and ar
rived Monday evening from Minneap-
oils to work i'm the Mitchell shops,
had just started the welding machine
when the blast occurred. Two frag-
ments of his body about ten inches in
diameter were found near the scene.
the rest being scattered over the de-
bris. The Bulgarian was blown
through a window and died in IN am
bulanee on the way TO the hospital.
Bandleman died after reaching the
hospital,
The injured men are suffering
chiefly from scalds and burns. al
though Sehirmer is badly bruised and
may be fatally injured internally.
When the blast occurred the whole
city shook from the force. A column
of smoke 200 feet high shot into the
sky and hung over the wrecked shops
like Il pail, making the work of res
cue difficult at first. The absence
of inflammable material in the struc-
ture prevented fire breaking out.
A corps of rescue workers soon
had uncovered the injured in the de-
bris. At first it was thought that ten
or more men had been killed, but
when the payroll was checked over
il was discovered that several had
gone with the injured to the hospital.
Bandleman was burned beyond
recognition and his identity was es-
tablished by a knife and watch found
i'm his clothes. The death of Schram
and Schirmer is expected.