Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-05
II TOlUns Shattered
by MunitiOn Blasts

Continued from Page One
battery of field artillery were doing
guard duty.
Occasional explosions We're taking
place this forenoon as far as two miles
away from the Gillespie plant. The peo-
pie of Perth Amboy, momentariiy err
pecting further terrific explosions from
trinitrotoiuol magazines. were leaving
the city by the thousands. South Amboy
was devastated and deserted.
The magazines which are buried
alongside the creek contain seven-day
supply of INT.
The actually known dead number four
teen, their bodies having been recovered,
The military Gordon thrown around
The devasted district made difficult any
effort tn gain information. while the
continuing explosions made the work
Of rescue task fraught with the great
est peril to resources
Parties Of exhausted men have been
struggling into Jersey villages all night
with appeals for cots for burned and
mutilated employees and fremen al
Morgan.
In response automobiles were loaded
with mattresses blankets and small beds
and were speeded to various towns where
relief work was being concentrated
Every hour brought more doctors and
nurses.
Reports from all towns within a radius
of ten miles tell of the walls of small
buildings being cracked and of damage
done in homes
out of all the confusion came stories
Of heroism and disregard of danger. A
trainload of explosives lay on siding
near the Gillespie plant, 4 railroad fire.
man, his identity not yet known, jumped
TO the engineers post ON "A locomotive
backed the engine and coupled it 10 the
train. and took the cars out Of the dan
ger zone. As his task was completed. a
shell struck him and he was killed
In contrast TO thousands Of towns
peope who fled the wives and other
relatives of employees hurried into the
vicinity of the Gillespie plant and be-
came frantic upon learning that hun
dreds of the workers might have been
killed,
Throughout the night these persons
kept away from the fire-swept ruins
only by the military guards.
While unofficial estimate placed the
number of known fatalities at 137 st
1880 a. m. an officer OF the Gillespie
Company expressed the opinion that the
death list would prove to be much
smaller.
The unofficial figures were based upon
statements OF persons who declared that
ninety-four men perished in the first
explosion last night and that twenty
five firemen, including their chief. named
Donohue, and eighteen guards at the
Gillespie plant were blown TO pieces
when one OF the buildings exploded at
3 a. m.
Another senrohiclal estimate placed
A.. ..a,h Iist ~ ffteen with n declara-
non that virtually the entire working
force except few in the building
where the explosion occurred. fled from
the worke ahead of the succeeding
blasts.
The American Red Cross has begun
relief work among refugees and injured,
windows Broken In New York
An explosion, which occurred at
1900 a. M, like many uf the previous
explosions, was distinctly felt in New
York. twenty miles distant. IL was
even reported TO have been felt as far
away as IsIip, l.. L. NIFTY miles from
the scene.
New York was shaken violently at
1890 a. m. from series of explosions
at the plapt.
The explosions broke windows of
buildings in the lower psrt of the city.
Fifty of them crashed IN ON the Broad
way side OF the Produce Exchange Build
ing at Bowling Green. Police reports
were that a great amount of glass was
broken in windows on staten Island.
The extent OF the property loss has
not yet been estimated by the company
ofiosrs The plant Is said to have been
valued At $4,000, 900 The wrecked
buileiprr czn pe rep'Aee1