The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1916-07-31
Exclusively.

with shrapnel, sugar, salt and pork,
and the contents, not explosives, of the
burned warehouses. No total estimate
of the loss was included in this sum-
mary
Tho statement said the evidence
showed that the fire started on a barge
owned by an independent towing COM
pany and moored alongside a railroad
pier, expressly against ORDERS" and
that the flames after burning for one
hour caused an explosion on the barge,
the first then spreading to cars which
employees had been unable to remove.
The body of a victim Of the explo-
sion, a young man of about %. was
picked up at noon yesterday near the
scene of the explosion.
Bedloes island, on which stands the
| Statue of Liberty nearest the Blaktom
peninsula, received the brunt of the
| explosion. The statue and all build
! ings on the island suffered damage
Every window in the pedestal Of the
statue was broken and the main door
weighing nearly a ton. was blown
from it's hinges. Engineers will be
summoned to examine the pedestal
and base of the statue to ascertain if
their stability is impaired.
Early Reports Erroneous.
First reports that more than thirty
persons had been killed proved erron-
eous. The Jersey City police said that
all the firemen had been accounted for,
that several men who had been en-
ployed as guards were missing, and
one child had succumbed from shock.
| About sixty persons are in hospitals,
several Of whom may die.
There were two explosions. The
first occurred shortly after 2 o'clock
Sunday morning, one hour after fire.
men began fighting a blaze which was
creeping toward the tons Of dynamite,
| shrapnel, trinitroleum and other explo-
| SiVes.
A plant of the National Storage
company is located on the island. Re-
! ports were vague as to whether the
| fire started in the companyS plant or
on a large barge onto which workmen
were removing the trinitroleum. The
flames reached this explosive and the
first detonation was followed about
one hour later by a second explosion,
| one less severe.
The tremors from the first detona-
| tion were Of almost earthquake pro-
portions spreading for miles, smash
ing windows, setting big buildings
atremble, and causing injury to per-
sons who were blown from their beds
n or hurled from their feet. One Of the
shocks was felt as far away as Phil
adelphia. Three tons Of dynamite were
reported to have blown up in the Sec
ond explosion.
The flames continued to rage for
hours, with shrapnel and powder con-
stantly exploding. Meanwhile barges
laden with bullets were drifting about
the bay. Two grounded at the federal
| immigration station at Ellis island,
and hospital patients and immigrants
were quickly transported to places Of
safety. The island buildings had been
| bombarded by missiles cast from Black
Tom island by the concussion, but the
shrapnel on the barge was packed ver-
tically and to this was attributed the
fact that there was no loss of life. The
flames on these barges and two others
which drifted past the island were ex-
tinguished by municipal fireboats and
men who played streams from the
shore.
1t was officially announced that the
| damage to all federal buildings in this
city and harbor, Brooklyn, Jersey City
and Hoboken, N. j., was not more than
$4,000. Earlier reports had placed the