TERRIFIC EXPLOSION

Nelson Evening Mail, 31 July 1916, Page 6

TERRIFIC EXPLOSION

WIUNITION WORKS WRECKED ADJOINING WAREHOUSES FIRED. UNPRECEDENTED SCENES IN NEW YORK. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Rec. Julv 31. 11.40 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 30. A terrific explosion took place at 2 o'clock on Sunday morning. It shook ali Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey Cities. It was followed' by another at 2.30. Many streets were strewn with glass. It is believed that a- train of munitions for the Allies was blown up. Another report states that an oil station was blown up. The sky was lit up by fires at Oommunipaw and Jersey Ci f y. Several deaths are reported, ami also enormous damage to property. There is difficulty in obtaining information owing to telephones and telegraphs being broken down. The streets are crowded with thousands of panic-stricken people. The explosion is reported to have occurred in the munitions of the National .Storage Company, near Commnnipaw. Firemen were fnrhting the flames when a second explosion hurled them in all directions, killing thirty-three. Oil ships lying near by were fired, causing a tremendous conflagration. All the warehouses in the vieinity ivere wrecked. It is stated that more than 600 tors of explosives for the Allies were blown up. Hundreds of police and firemen ar making frantic efforts to prevent the spread of the flames towards the Standard Oil Works, which are adjacent. Details show that the fire first broke out in freight cars and spread to the wharf, where it blew up fourteen barges loaded with high explosives. The National Storage Works are located on Black ton Island. Seven of the Company's warehouses were fired, and •ill the plant wrecked. There wis a. tremendous pillar of fire when the barges blew- up. The scenes at New York and Brooklvn were unprecedented. The force of the explosion was stu-h that hundreds of neoplo in all parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan w-ere hurled out of (heir beds. Thousands rushed from their hotels and apartments in their night vlothes and ran screaming into the streets.

Two barges drifted down the stream blazing stem and stein

The injured were removed from the barges near the scene. Included are ■naiiy women and children.

The damage to the National Storage J Co.'s plant alone is more than £1,000,- | .700. There are eighteen dead. j The total damage is estimated at | S15 : 000.000. {Rec, Julm 31. 10.5 a.m.) [ NEW YORK. Julv 3D. j The premises of the National "Storage Company, manufacturing munitions for "he Allies, was wrecked, and 7,000.000 lollars' worth of damage done. Shelllden barges drifted' down the Bay ablaze :nd hit Ellis Island and exploded, causng 1,000,000 dollars' damage. Immigrants were hustled out of E'Jis r sLa-nd. The explosion was felt :n five states. Two cars of shrapnel, surrounded by lames, were mnipproaeha-ble. LARGE LOSS OF LIFE. (Rec. Julv 31. 12.25 p.m.) NE-W YORK, July 30. The newspapers have estimated that the dead vary from 50 to 300. and tlie njnred and missing run into -hundreds. Fhe damage is not estimated. ORIGIN OF THE FIRE. (Rec. July 31. 1 p.m.) NEW VORK, July 30. It as now possible to ohtain a connected narrative of the explosion, which the consternation and broken com-nmnica- j tionsat the outlet precluded'. The origin i of the fire is a mystery althoug.li lit is ] believed to have started in the National Storage Building and spread to a cartload of dynamite, which in turn .spread to munition cars and barges. \ Probably a score of separate explosions occurred lasting' till six 'clock. after the first alarm all the police on special <lut\- and all the firemen and ambulances were called out. The police checked the panic ■among- tho crowds but in a mad stampede through the streets m;uiy were trodden down. Thousands who were at supper or dancing in Broadway's cabarets rushed int<; the streets shrieking with- terror. Many ran into the suhwa-ys with the result that the passage was janrbed by people. By the explosion, the Woolworth building and other -skyscrapers showed up against the sky which was intermittently lit up by an awful glare. Pieces of slirar.nel were picked up miles away. Tn Wall street windows were wrecked and also shop : windows in Herald Square and adjacent section in Broadway. The police endeavoured to guard jewellers -windows but there was much looting. (Rec. Julv 31, 1.50 p.m.) NEW YORK. July 30 The explosion caused great consternation, at Ellis Island, following on the shattering of the buildings.

The authorities called on: the fetw boats, into which the immigrants we'e hustled and hurried to Manhattan. Many were injured. There was great damage by fire. Fortunately the district was not a residential one, otherwiso there would have ceen wful loss of life.

The scene of the explosion was Leiga Valley, a terminal, ono of the main points from which munitions were loaded, for the Allies.

Trains crossing Brooklyn Bridge rocked and the windows were smashed and passengers hurled to the floors. There was an indescribable rattle and crash of glass from the falling of hundreds of windows and buildings torn down.

It recalled, but on. an infinitely bigger scale, the bomb raids in England. Terrified people rushed to the doorways and others to cover to escape falling glass. Many were injured and a number taken to the hospital. The number is not yet computed.

"Wall Street. Fulton Street and other down-town streets were like a> sea of ■broken glass. Morgan's buildings are window less, and people hatless rushed into the. streets with scantv attire.

Several men in the building adjoining the explosion are not accounted for.

It is feared that there are many bodies in the debris. It is known that a number of workman were hi own to atoms. As one barge drifted the firp crept oh the hull till :t readied the shells, when the water was lit. up by a mass of flame shooting skvwards.