NEW JERSEY EXPLOSION

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26119, 23 May 1950, Page 5

NEW JERSEY EXPLOSION

Death-Roll Set At_27 FIRE BREAKS OUT IN DOCK AREA (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK. May 21. A spectacular fire broke out to-day at South Amboy, in New Jersey, where a devastating explosion occurred on Friday night. Scores of land mines, scattered by tne earlier blast near the docks, exploded w r hen 20 tons of white phosphorus caught fire. Shell fragments were sprayed over the area, but nobody was injured. Huge columns of smoke towered 3000 feet above the town. Firemen could not approach nearer than 2000 feet from the fire because of the intense heat and the danger from exploding mines. They let the lire burn itself out. The number of deaths in Friday's munitions explosion at South Amboy was fixed officially to-day at 27. The bodies of only four persons have been recovered, and 23 persons are missing. Rescue workers who combed the explosion area to-day said that those missing had apparently been blown to bits. Soldiers with mine de'tectors co’lected unexploded munitions which had been scattered over a wide ares by the blast. Bulldozers then moved in to tackle the job of clearing awa< the debris. Troops still patrolled South Amboy to-day while the police kept away all people who did not have official business in the town. Survivors of Friday’s blast gathered at the churches to give thanks for their escape from death. Many churches which were damaged by the explosion held special services in th* open. Friday's explosion occurred during the loading of a large quantity of munitions on four barges. The munitions were destined for Pakistan. Ben Waived for Shipment Vice-Admiral Merlin O’Neill, th* United States Coast Guard Commandan;, said to-day that the Pakistan munitions shipment had been exempted from a recent ban on such consignments. The Coast Guard had ruled on Mav 9 that not more than 5001 b of explosives could be shipped from South Amboy. The order was relaxed, however. because the Pakistan shipment already was on its way to South Amboy, and the Coast Guard considered it safer to permit its movement through South Amboy than to hav? it de’ayed on railways in the congested east coast railway yards. Vice-Admiral O’Neill said that Friday’s explosion was the first in South Amboy since the explosives transhipment area was established there ;n 1916. The Marine Casualtv Board was at present in South Amboy investigating the explosion. Confusion still surrounded the explosion. One witness had told th** Coast G.uard that two railway vans o' dvnamite exploded, along with 10 other vans, and the authorities were trying to discover whether the explosion was touched off bv a fire that started in the dynamite, added Vice-Admiral O’Neill.