Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1924-03-08
INT EXPLOSION
WRECKS PLANT
Score of Bodies Recovered From
Debris of Nixon Nitration
Works.
20 ACRES LAID WASTE
Blast Skaters Windows In 80 Mile
Area; Cities Rush Aid-Troops
Guard Victims - Nurses and
Soldiers Work Together.

New Brunswick, N. 1.-THE number
of known dead as q result Of the dis.
astrous INT explosion and celluloid
fire at the little town Of Nixon was
placed at eighteen. Rescuers who
worked in the smoking ruins said
eight persons are missing, six are un'
accounted for and sixty are being
treated for injuries sustained In the
disaster. -'...
The last body found was that OF
Mrs. Arthur Dumas, who, with her
three little children and a visiting
woman friend. was killed in her home
just outside the Nixon. plant bound
aries. That which remained OF her
body was dug from the ruins IN her
cellar. A few splintered fragments re-
naming of her home, lay 20 feet away,
where the bodies Of the Dumas chill
dren and Miss Janice Rockefeller, her
friend, were found the night before.
Urged on by employees who declar-
ed the bodies of six of their fellows
still laid buried in the smouldering
ruins, firemen with tractors resumed
tearing at masses Of twisted steel and
shattered tile that remains OF the
Nixon nitration works, forty-f1ve build
ings where they manufactured cellu-
loid novelties, but company oficials
urged them to discontinue the work,
saying all the dead had been found.
The flremen then turned to digging
among the wrecked tanks, railroad
cars and heaps Of INT and ammonia
in boxes and barrels which fringe the
gigantic crater marking the site Of the
explosion. Fires continued to burst
forth in scattered heaps of the debris,
but authorities asserted al were under
control. The rows of magazine filled
with highly inflammable celluloid in
sheets-most of them with doors
blown off or roofs crushed in-were
believed out of danger.
What caused the explosion remain
ed a mystery and prompted investiga-
lions. Officers Of the Raritan arsenal,
adjoining the destroyed properties,
and where half dozen Of the scores
of magazine stuffed with high explo-
sive shells were blown in, will conduct
an inquiry for the Government. The
INT which exploded had been salvag-
ed at the arsenal and removed to the
Nixon plant to be prepared for nitrates
to be used as farm fertilizer.
Another investigation was begun by
icfo fU
Chief of County Detectives David and
Coroner Hubbard.
The most generally accepted theory
was that the explosive properties had
INTO been eliminated from the INT be-
fore 1t was transferred from the arse
nal to the 800 foot building of the Am
monte company, where the blast &C.
Cured.
Thousands of persons tried to get
within the high wire fence surround
ing the Nixon properties. They came
by train and automobiles from miles
distant.
Nixon's blasted acres were a sham
bles of ruined walls and twisted iron
as firemen searched for additional
which obliterated completely the con-
crete and brick plant of the Ammonite
company, had been sufficient to raze
halfdozen of the two score struc-
lures of the Nixon Vibration Works,
manufacturers of celluloid products,
on whose property the Ammonite
plant stood. The other buildings, used
by the Nixon company as store houses.
drying rooms and process plants, had
been blown apart, their roofs were
ripped off but their walls still stood.
Where the Ammonite building was,
great hole yawned. Boilers and
tanks, as we'll as railroad tank cars on
nearby siding lay in fantastic shapes
and positions, ripped and torn as
though they had been made of card
board. Pieces of concrete and frag-
ments of tile gave the only other evil
dence that sturdy building had once
occupied the spot.