The sun., 1918-10-05
100 BELIEVED DEAD
IN INT EXPLOSION
Continued from FIRST Page.

from Morgan's Station, declined to an
swer any questions on the ground that
the military authorities had taken the
situation in hand and that they had
been forbidden to talk.
But in spite Of this carefully guarded
situation, II soon became apparent that
many Of the men had been killed out
right at their places and that scores OF
others, wounded and blinded by the
had escaped In the darkness and
were crawling to safety through the
neighboring FIELDS. Over their heads
shells went flying. as though fred from
q real battery, and a large force OF
volunteer. workers aiding the soldiers
found many pitifully hurt men cropping
blindly from the blazing plant.
The yards Of the plant were said to
be Uttered with fragments of human
bodies and one ambulance driver told
Of seeing litter OF human limbs in
the blacksmith shop of the plant. Thir-
ty or more OF the injured were treated
at the South Amboy Hospital some of
whom were sent home while others,
badly torn or burned, remained at the
institution.
A Jersey physician not officially con-
nected with the hospital but who re-
sponded to tho first call for physicians,
said that he had come across the bodies
Of at least two victims who must have
been blown through the building in
In which they worked by the force of
the conoussion.
A railroad fireman Is known to have
lost his life because OF his devotion to
duty. When the first explosion occurred
there was on a siding in the yard of the
plant a trainload OF explosives. Realiz-
ing the danger IL one Of these cars
should be struck by the flying pieces or
attacked by the flames. he backed a To-
connective in and after coupling to the
cars started to haul them out. He was
struck by fragment of a shell.
The wives OF many men who lived
near the plant approached the scene
with utter disregard of danger and made
wild efforts to pass the guards at the
two gates that are placed at the two
ends OF the property. At times the
guards were forced to handle the women
roughly to prevent them from rushing
into the danger zone. and the women
chung fererishly about the groups OF men
beg for some word concerning their own
loved ones.
Try to Reach Their Kin.
Upon the trestle that leads from Perth
Amboy to land near the plant which is
used by the New York and Long Branch
Railroad. women and children crowded
and pushed in an effort to reach their
kin 1t was only when the soldiers
came In force that this devoted throng
was sent back and quieted as best the
men in khaki. under the stress OF the
situation, could perform such task.
A policeman arriving at Perth AM
boy late last night from the scene said
- ~
ing fields were in darkness. rs the cleo
trio lights had been put out of commits
sion BY the explosion and there re-
manned only the diving flames TO give
the barest illumination to the midnight
scene
The hospital inside the plant 4,
crowded with injured people" said this
policeman. They were still finding in
jured men in the surrounding fields when
I left Those who could walk or crawl
tried to get away from the repeated ex-
plosions and the flames and were only
picked UP when the soldiers and the
police corlbed the fields"
People living in all OF the towns in
the section Of New Jersey adjacent to
the coast heard and felt the explosion,
and from Fort Hamilton. in Brooklyn.
and points along Long Island came re-
ports that the jar had been felt dis
tlnctly. The Long Island folk thought
that munition ship had exploded In
the lower bay and visions OF Halifax
ana It's Famous disaster came TO them
sS they tpaoe eHorlS 10 get oenhite IN
tor'hs''on'
Will
Standing out among the hundreds OF
willing workers there was one heroic
in ha ~
operator whose office was located half
a mile from the fire. In spite Of the
fact that shells were hurled over her
hut. that every pane OF glass in 1t was
shattered and the whole force OF an
inferno seemed to be raging about her
she remained at her post. calling ambu-
lances, physclans. hremen ana giving
aid. Al one period II seemed that her
ONCE was about 10 be DESTROYED, but
she gameiy declined 10 leave her post
ana kept the wires working from the
nearest possible point to the scene that
any Information could possibly be pro-
cured.
IN! s'eHans anu nurses answering her
calis' estaoisned hrst ana station some
instance from the hre ana there the
shsntiy injured were treated. The Sc
Nerely injured were taken TO the plant
hospital and when II was hlled, to other
hospitals extending over the countryside
all the way from Perth Amboy TO Eliza
beth.
Twenty-Five doctors and a number OF
ambulances. sent from Perth Amboy, re-
turned with many of the injured, and
when 1t was found that the City Hos
pital was not equal to demands made
upon II, hotel was prepared to take
caro- OF the overflow. The United States