The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-09
FOUR Other
WORKERS ARE
NEAR DEATH
One Man Reported Missing
After Blast at
EIyria, 0.
WALLS ARE CAVED IN
Machinery and Wreckage
Are Thrown High Into
Air to Trees.
WALLS ARE CAVED IN
By United Press

ELYRIA, O., Nov. "a gas ex-
plosion in the Timm Spring Com
pany plant today leveled the plant
and resulted in deaths to at least
five employees.
Several other persons are in such
serious condition they are not ex-
pected to live, while at least one
man is reported missing.
The explosion came shortly after
7 a. m. Police reported that q
watchman had detected gas in the
building and had warned against
any one lighting match, but that
one man had not been warned and
etered smoking a cigaret.
Three women and a man are
dying and at least one more is
missing.
The dead:
Louis Butcher, 81.
John Rahle.
Mike SWetz.
Unidentified man about 80.
Unidentified man about 25.
The injured:
Margaret Gilman, Mary Downs,
] Myron Sossler, Augusta Grennell,
Sam Hustled plant foreman. All
are at Elyria memorial hospital in
serious condition.
All of the dead were burned al
most beyond recognition and the
task Of identifying them was diff
cult. The bodies were in wierdly
distorted positions.
Blast Levels Plant
The last levelIed the brick and
steel plant as though it had been
smashed to bits by a bombing
squadron. The detonations could
be heard for ten miles. Walls in
adjacent buildings were caved in
and in ali area of one mile around
the springs works glass was shat
! tered.
Hundreds visited the grewsome
scene of the wrecked building to
watch police and firemen search for
bodies in the ruins. The Timms'
works would have been filled with
thirty-fve men and women workers,
who were due at work at 7 a. M.
had the explosion occurred fifteen
minutes later.
The blast was believed to have
been caused by gas leaking from
high pressure gas lines installed IN
the plant Friday to feed battery
of new boilers.
Sam Hustled, day foreman at the
plant, near death in Eyria Me-
mortal hospital, told how he ap-
proach-d the plant to go to work.
He was welking with four other en-
ployes. Hustled said he opened the
door and smelled gas. Then he saw
one Of his men light cigaret:
Don't light that" the foreman
yelled. you'll be blown to hell"
The warning was too late. Flames
shot skyward. The exploding gas
roared The building trembied and
splintered. Machinery and pieces
Of wreckage were thrown high into
the air and caught in the boughs
of nearby trees. That added to
the danger that the rescuers had
to cope with.
Windows Are Smashed
Immediately east of the spring
plant is the Sunshine Laundry
Company. Its workers had not yet
arrived for the day. Windows were
smashed, however, in the Souch-
1.-THE Screw Works, nearby, and In
the General Pattern Shop. Because
of the early hour, there was no one
in either building.
Mrs. John Horvath was In bed
with her baby in her home not far
down the street. She was thrown to
the floor by the explosion. She said
she was seized with the terrible fear
of death as she saw the walls of
her home buckle under the per-
cussion.
"It was like a giant clap Of thur
der" explained Mrs. Loretta Taylor,
who lives around the corner from
the Times plant.
The first battalion of the One
forty-f1fth infantry, was called out
to help locate bodies. The infantry
men also strained to hold back the
crowd that surrounded the pile Of
wreckage where the springs plant
had stood.
Women were weeping, gasping
and crying out names. The fire was
extinguished quickly and 1t did not
spread from the Tinms plant
wreckage.