New-York tribune., 1918-08-04
Fires That Crippled
Munitions factories


Fires That Crippled
Munitions Factories
On February fire destroyed a
brick building containing the labo-
ratories of the Driver Harris Wire
Company. at Harrison. n j., in
volving the loss Of 100000 worth
of testing machinery for rifles,
cannon, shrapnel shells and other
munitions and stock of fine wire
used in the making of wireless ap-
paratus.
On February II fire destroyed
the Oak Island freight transfer sta
ton and thirty-hvc freight cars of
the Lehigh Valley Railroad at New
ark. The same day fire broke out
in the plant of the KlaXon Com
pany, Newark A watchman saw a
man running from the buildings
about the time the fire was discov-
cred and fired shot after him. In
February there We're twenty fires
at or near munition plants and in
every case evidence pointed to Ger
man origin
An explosion destroyed a build
ing Of the Butterworth & Judson
Chemical Works on Canary Island,
in the Passaic River, where trinitro-
toluol was manufactured, on March
"a. In three different places fire
broke out simultaneously in the
Lake Erie & Western Railroad
shops at Lima, Ohio. April %. The
fire practically destroyed the plant.
including locomotives to be used
for the transportation of war sup
plies and new train of troop
coaches.
A series of nine explosions
wrecked the explosive manufacture
ing plant of the Aetna Chemical
Company. at Oakdale. near PITTS
burgb, Penn, on May 18, 1918.
More than fifty employees were
hilled and about a hundred seri-
ously injured In May fire, of
mysterious origin, destroyed a great
plant in San Francisco, where aero
planes were being manufactured
for the government. Many planes
in process of construction-seri-
ously needed by our armies at the
front-Were consumed.
1t is certainly not without sig
nlficance that at a time when near
ly all the sailors We're absent parad-
ing in a pageant on the Fourth Of
July of this year fire destroyed
Sewell's Point section base, the
headquarters near Cape May of the
Fourth Naval District submarine
patrol fleet, which carried the most
complete equipment of naval stores
on the New Jersey coast. The loss
was reported to exceed s25O,0oo.
The Coyote, the first wooden
ship of the emergency fleet pro-
gramme, might have been damaged
or destroyed on the very day it was
launched last March in the yaros
of the Foundation Company, al
+ earny. Just before the Coyo+e
slid down the ways timely inspec-
ton showed that cinders had been
mixed in the tallov used to grease
the ways. The ways had been
creased on Monday afternoon;
on Tuesday night the ways for 100
feet above the centre were sprin-
kled with cinders.
Testifying before the Senate
Commerce Committee on March IA.
1918, Dudley R. Kennedy, one of
the managers of the Hog Island
shipyard, declared that 245 pounds
of dynamite, enough to blow un the
whole plant, had been found in
packages concealed in supplies in
various parts of the yard. On Jan
uary 81 a fire occurred on hos
rital ship lying in one of the most
drydocks on the Atlantic
coast. In investigating the cause
of the fire. six sticks of dynamite
were found in the hold of the vessel.
In 1916 DR. Walter T. Scheele. a
German chemist, alleged by the
government to be one of the chief
aids of Won Papen and Boy-Ed.
was indicted for plotting the de-
atruction of ocean liners. Before
warrants for his arrest were issued
ne managed to escape. and it was
1ot until last March that he was
arrested in CUBA and brought back
to this country. In the trial of
franz Won Rintelen the government.