Arizona republican., 1917-01-22
HUNDREDS TRY
To VIEW RUINS
: Of SHELL PLANT
[Republican Alp. Leased wirel

LONDON, Jan. 22-Throughout Sun
day thousands of persons flocked to
East London, hoping to satisfy their
curiosity as to the effect of Fridays
explosion in the munition factory there
None of them. however, was able to
obtain near view of the scene owing
to rigid police regulations and could
only wander through the outlying
streets, where most of the windows
We're shattered by the concussion.
The newspaper reporters who were
allowed to approach nearer the scene,
described what was formerly the site
of the explosive store as hole a hun
dred yards across and eighty feet deep
with masses of earth, iron and all sorts
of wreckage covering an area of about
six acres around the hole. Within that
area the destruction was absolute.
For two days" says the Daily Mails
reporter soldiers have been digging in
and turning over the wreckage in
search of bodies About a hundred
have been recovered, but there are
still more 1t seems almost impossible
to remove the thousands of tons of
earth, stone, iron and wood under
which they are buried. On the whole,
| however, one is struck far more by the
! number of people who escaped than by
the number killed Judging from the
| fact that most of the factories were
nearly empty and from the known pro-
portion of casualties in certain houses.
it does not appear that the death roll
will exceed 300.
| TT would have been much greater
had the explosion occurred later, when
| the people had gone to bed, for then
they would have been blown away with
the upper stories of the houses, where
as, being mostly on the ground floors.
! they had better chance to escape"
/ The papers print columns of indiVd-
ual stories, pathetic incidents and the
| freak effects common with all eXplo-
sions, such as a rickety cottage escap-
| ing even to its windows, while ada
cent substantial buildings were razed :
I of people nearby escaping unhurt or
with only slight injuries, while others
at distance were killed.
! The destruction of the gas tank is
described as having afforded an amaz-
I ing spectacle. The tank did not eX-
plode. but its top was lifted off like a
box lid and-the eight million cubic feet
| of Illuminating gas were liberated. Ig-
nitino a column of flame rose to a
| height estimated at two miles burned
| for a few seconds and then went out
with the suddenness of the switching
off of an electric light. Several other
gas tanks nearby are still intact.
Tribute is paid in all the reports of
the explosion to the heroism of the
chief chemist, DR.. Angel whose self
sacrifice was briefly mentioned in the
! official communication. All the reports
seem to show that DR.. Angel had a
good chance to escape, but waited to
see that all the operatives were out
and then returned to help fight the fire
The assistant chemist was caught by
the explosion when within two hundred
yards of it. He had implored DR.. An
CELL to flee with him, but Dr. Angel
he says. replied
THE firemen are here and ] must
| go helm them"
He then dashed back. With DR.. An
CELL persisted the Waterman who with
equal heroism was opera ting the loca
fire apparatus. DR.. Angel was 40 years
old. He was a science scholar in Ok
ford University, and lecturer on sci
enre in the two oxford colleges.
Shortly after the war began DR.. An
CELL resigned his university appoint
ments, and undertook the superin-
tendency of the manufacture of chem
icals for the government. He lived in
side the factory, taking only brief oc-
casional absences. His wife last veal
was appointed superintendent of the
women workers in the factory, was not
present at the time of the explosion
Two days previously she had been in
! structing the women how to escape in
the event of fire.