Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1916-08-04
new YORK BLAST
KILLS 10 PERSONS
Dynamite and ShrapneI Go Up in
Harbor.
EXPLOSION ROCKS 5 STATES
Scores of Persons Injured When In
ferno Is Loosed on lsiand-Cars
Loaded With Dynamite Collide
Munitions Destroyed.

New York, Aug. Property loss
estimated at $25,000,000 was caused
early Sunday morning by series of
terrific explosions of ammunition
awaiting shipment to the entente allies
and stored on Black Tom island, a
small strip of land jutting into New
York bay off Jersey City.
Two are known to be dead and at
persons were injured, some of them
probably MORALLY.
The detOnations, which were felt in
five states, began with continuous
rapid fire of small shells, the blowing
up of great quantities of dynamite,
trinitrotoluene, and other high ex-
plosives, followed by the bursting of
thousands of shrapnel shells, which
literally shOwered the surrounding
country and waters for many miles
around.
Fire that started soon after the first
great crash, which spread death and
deSolatiOn in it's wake, destroyed IL
of the huge warehouses of the Ma
tiOnal Storage company on Black Tom
island, in which was stored merchan-
disc valued at between $12OO0,OOO
and $15,OOO,OOO.
The flames, shooting into the clouds,
were reflected against New York's
skyline" of the towering office build
ings, which only a few moments be-
fore were shaken to their foundations
by an earthquake. Miles of streets
in Manhattan alone were strewn with
broken glass and shattered signs.
The cause of the disaster had not
been determined. Officials of the Ma
tiOnal Storage company and the Lee
high Valley railroad, which also suf-
fered heavily through loss of proper
ty, declared, however, that reports to
them showed a fire started shortly
after one o'clock on a barge belong
ing to an Independent towing COM
pany that had been mOOred alongside
dock used by the railroad company
to transfer ammunition shipments
from trains to vessels in the harbor.
The barge, it was said, was there
without authority either of the rail
road or the storage company. The
officials refused to disclose the name
of the Independent towing company,
saying they were investigating ito
ascertain whether the barge purposely
had been set on fire as the result of
plot"
Edmund l.. Mackenzie, president Of
the National Storage company, de-
clared that the plant of his concern
was valued at 100000, while the
contents of the warehouse probably
were worth S1O,OOO,OOO. One of the
warehouses which remains intact, he
kaid, is filled with chemicals. Besides
the great quantity of raw sugar
burned, there were $4,000 bales of to-
bacco, much mating from China and
Japan, and other merchandise. The
loss to his company and the railroad,
Mr.. Mackenzie said, was partly COW
cred by insurance.
Most of the sixty or more injured
taken TO Jersey City hospitals were
struck by shrapnel, falling glass or
debris. Nearly all were in the railroad
yards or on craft mOored near the
island. Included among them were
few women and children, whose homes
were on barges.
Every window in the pedestal of
the Statue of Liberty, on Bedloes is
land, opposite Black Tom, was broken,
and the main door, made of iron and
weighing almost ton, was blown off
it's hinges. The statue itself, however,
was not damaged except from the rain
of shrapnel which despatched it.
The skyscrapers of the financial dis
trict looked as if they had been tar
gets for scattered handfuls of rocks
from some great giant. Windows
were ripped out of their fronts and
sides, twisted frames hung over the
streets, and jutting edges and window
stills were strewn with splinters of
glass.
From the Battery and the White
hall building northward and eastward
the force of the explosion traced it's
path by openings that held plate glass
display windows and by the emptied
frames of smaller Office windows high
er sometimes than go stories
The subtreasury escaped Two of
the largest windows, of very thick
French plate glass, in the j. p Nor
gan building, the counting house of the
allies financial representatives, at
Wall and Broad STREETS, were broken
into bits.