NEW JERSEY DISASTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9490, 2 January 1919, Page 7

NEW JERSEY DISASTER.

MANY* THOUSAND'S HOMELESS.

The disastrous explosions which occurred' at the GiUespie shell-loading works at 'Morgan's,' New Jersey, on October 4 and o last, and which resiii'ted in a iiarge number of employees being either "killed'or injured,* occasioned scenes of terror in the, immediate, vicinity, and particularly im New York. The. GiUespie plant is one of the largest of its kind in America, , and," has some 7000 men and women oii its pay-roll. A New York paper of October b", in describing the explosion, says:— Oik' of the greatest disasters that the metropolitan district has ever suffered drew on toward its close at Morgan 'Lt-d night, where for the last 24 hours the burning Government shellloading plant managed by the T. A. (iillespie Loading Company has flamed and thundered destruction, Early yesterday morning it was erroneously reported that the fire in the great factory, which hud been burning since early on Friday evening, was under control. Since- then five tremendous | explosions of trinitro-totuol stored ther.e. and hundreds of minor blasts 1 have practically wiped oul the entire plant, covering eight square miles, out of existence. The terrific salvos, which bunst, out' at irregular intervals as the fire ato its way from building to building, shook the entire State of .'New ■Jersey ■ and caused'minor damage in New York, 40' mites away. They wiped ' out Morgan; They destroyed South jAm boy-;-/a town of 10^000 persons, from which all but a few hundred have .fled. They created, a devastated district, as terrible as,, any that France may cllspTay., for a radius ,of two. miles : about....the,:plant'.'; They wrecked scores of buildings in a far wider area. ; Sixty thousand persons are homeless to-night—refugees from the stupendous cannonade that threatened v to destroy their homes. No one has yet attempted to estimate the damage.: No one has been able to count the injured or dead. The former are being cared for in hos.pitals iilled; to overflowing in 'half-a-dozen towns. and. in tents erected by the Red Cross. ; The latter still, lie in the blackened area where the , great plant" stood." The flames are so fierce still that no one has dared to approach. Added to the horror of the five earthquake-like explosions of-yes-terday was the fear that the main magazine, in which hundreds of tons are stored, would be reached and exploded. Had this occurred the results would have, been unthinkable. By iwxm, .when it appeared as though the magazine must go, officers of the Ordnance Department who had assumed charge of the situation, ordered all habitations evacuated for a radius of 10 miles about the plant. The heat of the flames kept soldiers and rescuers '•far■"from the fire, but. the observations .made by ':airplane, late in the afternoon, determined the .safety .of the magazine,

■All the afternoon the work of clearing the zone, which army officers believed \j;ould be blasted out of all human shape if the great magazine went up, proceeded, while the fire ■continued to rage and crept nearer and nearer the danger line behind its barrage oi' shells. How near was the wave of fire to the magazine ?-Was it still advancing ? These two questions chat passed .up and down the cordon of troops that held their ground and wondered " half-humourously what was going to happen to them when, "the big one goes." But the officers in charge of the .situation had been at work'and had determined to use one of the mainstays of the human warfare.; upon, this 'battle with inanimate things, it was'-thought that the-big magazine would go at somewhere near 4 o'clock. Just- before 'that hour those- whb watched .and waited saw a black speck come .drifting, hi from the east/ watched it. grow and tako form until the siiarl of a motor panic to their ears above the thunder of bursting shells. It was an aeroplane from the flying- fields at Hampstead, sent to scout above the advancing ranks of the lire. 1 The cordon of troops saw it wheel and dip in and out of the "smoke cloud. Once it swept so close that they could see the observer leaning out', field-glasses glued to his, eyes. At last t-he 'observation, -was completed, and the .'plane dipped to earth, behind the line of waiting men. "All safe,"! came the answer to the question each ■wa* .asking., "It won't reach the magazine." The first of the series of explosions occurred at about the time the night shift 0f.2000 employees or more had gone to work. The explosion' was followed by ■ others in quick succession. -There was a lull, and then came a dozen or more explosions of about the same force. There .were scenes of panic in New York, which rocked throughout the day by explosions which vibrated its tallest buildings, experienced for iive hours yesterday the fear of what might- have proved the greatest .single catastropne in the history of high explosives. At every bridge, plaza and subway station, vast throngs gathered, and everywhere there was an attitude of suspense and alarm ioreign in calibre to anything New York has ever known. While this situation obtained in the city, hundreds of thousands of refugees from all towns in the vicinity of -Morgan were fleeing in panic along every highway .loading- to safety in New Jersey, and as they Hed amid scenes of confusion there roared forth explosions which did a damage of more than §10,000,000, killed and injured many, and made virtually every one of the refugees homeless. For ■ hours the .great- expdus continued along the New Jersey roads amid scenes of panic and confusion beyond description. Alen, women,' and children, were trampled, waggonloads of furniture were overturned and formed stumbling-block* for thousands in the, iriad turmoil. Horses ran away or kicked furiously in the 'closely-packed throngs, and children by Lhe hundreds were frantically" sought by parents whom they in turn were seeking. "I. do not think the explosion resulted from carelessness among our employees," said Mr T. A. Gillespie, head of the munition plant, after conference with military authorities. Without vi'iituring any i-eply to a question as to the" possibility of the explosions being the work of GtfMnany, Mr Gil-k-spie said: "This' is Avar, however, aij.fl we tt.i'x- iir the midst-...0f it."- V