The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-13

to them.
 Spontaneous combustion in dry powder?" they asked each other. several laughed.
 "A spark might have done it, from a nail in somebody's shoe," one said, but that seems far-fetched to us"
 Engineers among them spoke of pencil-like devices which could be dropped into can of powder. One end contains acid, they said. The other, combustible material. When the acid eats through a thin rub Der membrane in about half an hour and reached the other sub stance, fire resulted.
 we should be searched every day when we enter the plant" one said. up to now they searched us every few days, but that wasn't enough"
 Carl Stull, Cambridge, Mass, an engineer for c. B. Badger and Sons, Boston, was in charge of con- structing the new $100,000 solvent recovery plant where the first ex- plosion occurred. A corrugated iron and wood structure where ether and alcohol were recovered from the by- products of powder-making, it was opened this week.
 Escaped By Accident
 'I don't know how I escaped" he said. "Just by accident I left the plant. I was 50 yards away when the blast hit and knocked me 40 feet. lit on by hip and was par alyzed by shock.
 T lay there stunned, then tried to run. A second blast came and the building flew apart.
 Sheets of iron flew at me and I paved at them with my hands un- til I was clear.
 Funny, the things I thought about. I thought about the house I was planning to buy for myself, the car was making payments on. I wondered what's going to become o fthem now?'"
 q thought nobody knows about these things. How will they be at tended to? And how is my mother going to get along now?'
 Then remembered the old army advice they gave us in France, to lie low and wait fo rthingS to blow over. So instead of running, I waited, and after awhile it was all right, and I got up and began car- rying out the boys I'd been working with five minutes before.
 "One fthem looked up at me and said, be careful of my leg looked down. He had his leg all right, but it was just bare bone"
 Saved His Life
 Louis Bukta, 24, went to work on newly opened "B" assembly line yesterday. Five minutes before the blast, his foreman took him out side to talk to him. It saved his life.
 Another worker was buried ben heath the rubble of the "A" line. He was dug out unharmed, ah hour later. A man who had been stand ing two feet away was dead and his body was unrecognizable as that of a man.
 Company officials praised Grace Hickman, nurse, the only woman on the grounds. She was alone in the company infirmary when it col- lapsed about her. Bruised and shaken. she fought clear of wreck age and began aiding survivors. Ten hours later police forced her to go home and rest. She drove away, protesting bitterly, in her car. Its windows had been smashed.
 At Wharton, a town of 5000 near here, almost every family had a member who had been injured or killed or had just missed death.
 At Dover Hospital surgeons worked In gowns splashed with blood patch ing shattered limbs and torn flesh, Now and then nurses brought fresh ones.
 Relatives crowded the doors. They were refused admittance. Sights Too Much
 ''The sights inside would be too much for tl'em." e physician said. A pretty girl broke through the lines and got to pr. James Lough- lin, hospital president.
 My hnshands here," she cried. T came all the way from Ashury Park and l demand to sec him."
 Finally she was taken Into c ward, She came out shaking.
 "Heil be ali rlghtP" she asked,
 A surgeon patted her shoulder, There should be . change noonl' llo said. reassurrlnely, "he should bo lot better off. You 70 homo and we'll let voii kn0w.H