SHOCKING DISASTER

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3441, 10 March 1932, Page 5

SHOCKING DISASTER

FOURTEEN MEN INCINERATED. fj " t IN GAS PURIFYING PLANT. -ir-ii i j A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION. • (Press Association.— Copyright.) (Received 10.5 a.m.) Boston, February 7. An official of the Public Service Electric and Gas Company at Camden, New. Jersey, said that fourteen workmen were killed by an explosion in the purifying box at the company’s plant to-day. Four were injured, two seriously, and only one escaped. The residences in the adjacent blocks were severely shaken. The scene of the explosion is a mile from the central city area. The blast was made harrowing by the cries of the relatives of the doomed men. The explosion was caused by a spark, either as the result of a blow oh the metal of the inner shell of the tank or a lighted match that ignited the gas collected within. A tremendous roar announced the accident, while practically all the workmen, many of whom were earning their first pay for weeks, were trapped below in the fierce torchlike flame which followed, but was speedily extinguished by firemen. The tank is a square steel structure twenty by twenty feet, and fifteen feet in height. The metal interior was coated with a mixture of charcoal, sawdust, sulphuric and ‘ other acids, the box being used in purifying gas in composition. The gas collects, and several times a year it is necessary to clean it out.