Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-02-13
BLAST OF 1885
RECALLED AGAIN
ONLY TWO MEMBERS OF BUTTE
FIRE DEPARTMENT ESCAPED
WHEN POWDER EXPLODED
Total Death List Was 81 and It Was
Thought Others We're Blown To
Pieces of Whom No knowledge Was
Ever Obtained.

Ever Obtained.
Jan. Is, 1890, was the 35th ami
versary of the 'big explosion" which
killed 81 Butte people in 1885. The
city hall station of the Butte fire
department supplied % per cent of
those killed in the blast, caused by
fire in a warehouse where several
carloads Of powder were stored. Only
two members of the station ESCAPED
Jack Flannery, the plugman, and
Dave Magee, the driver of the hose
cart. Magee escaped when one Of his
horses, killed by a flying missile, fell
on his driver, injuring him severely
but protecting him from the rain
of iron and steel-bolts, nuts and
rabble heads that filled the air.
Flannery escaped because the fire
plug vas some distance from the
blaze.
Flannery is 0 superintendent Of
safety at the Great Falls reduction
works of the Anaconda Copper Mining
company.
While the death list was placed at
81, there was a general belief that 1t
was considerably larger. Butte, in those
days, was crowded with a floating
population, the result Of the closing
Of the silver mines in 1893, q circum-
stance which required years Of adj
justment in the western part of the
nation. Many of the drifting popula-
ton are believed to have been blown
up along with the known 81 Butte
The dead firemen who constitute q
roll Of honor on the records Of the
Butte fire department were Angus D.
Cameron, chief; John F. Sloan, assis-
tant chief; P. j.. Norling, ladderman:
George Fifer, driver, hook and ladder;
E. L. Sloan, pipe man; David Moses,
pipe man and volunteer fireman; j. F.
Bowman, w. A. Brokaw, Thomas Burns,
William Copeland, Steve Deloughery
and W. H. Nolan.
The alarm that carried practically
all of the city hall fire crew to its death
came into the station at 9:55 p. M,
Jan. is, 1885, from what has since
been known as Hateful Box No. e."
located at the corner of Utah avenue
and Iron street. 1t was turned in by
Police Officer James Steinborn who
was on duty in that district. Mr..
Steinborn died a few years ago.
The fire was Just east of Arizona
street between the Northern Pacific
and the Montana Central tracks and
was in the warehouse of the Kenyon
COnnell Hardware company. The crew
Of the Central fire station, the city
hall crew, responded to the call. 1t
was the last for all but two Of them,
Magee and Flannery. The Quartz street
crew replaced the Central at the city
hall as was the custom. Had a second
call come in before the explosion oc-
CURED Butte would have lost It's en-
tire fire department.
There was first q Slight explosion
following the turning of the water on
the fire. The firemen drew of and
then, thinking everything safe, re-
turned to their work Of e~xtinguishing
the flames. At eight minutes after
10 o'clock, just 10 minutes after the
alarm was turned in, came the ire
mendous shock.
Many Stunned
The original description Of the ex-
plOSiOn reads. THE shock and the
sound can be better imagined than
described. Others more than a mile
away felt the force Of it. The sound
Of the explosion was heard SO miles
away. The iron roof Of the Kenyon
Cornell warehouse shot into the air
more than 100 feet. The broken and
shattered contents of the building,
mostly iron and other heavy materials,
we're scattered like grape and canister,
moving paths Of death on every side.
Dead and dying and the lesser wounded
were lying all around.
Then came the second and more
terrific explosion from the Butte Hard
ware warehouse which had apparently
caught fire from the first blaze. The
second explosion Is said to have done
more damage than the first
Volunteer firemen and bystanders
were blown to pieces. William Orr was
blown 200 feet and yet escaped death.
George Lapp was appointed chief OF
the fire department to take the place
of Chief Angus Cameron. Mr.. Lapp
was appointed on the night Of the
explosion.
The city ordinances governing the
storage Of powder within the city limits
was violated by both hardware COM
panies, 1t has been repeatedly charged.
Nobody except the managers Of the
hardware companies knew just how
much powder had been stored In the
warehOuses-"but 1t must have been