200 TONS POWDER BLOWN UP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16467, 17 February 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

200 TONS POWDER BLOWN UP.

DUPONT WORKS WRECKED, jg j Fotra hundred thousand pounds of powdei! | i (200 tons) was destroyed by fire and ex* ] plosion at the Haskell, X.J., plant of tW 1 Dupont Co., New York, wlich is reported |j by cable to have made a profit last year I of £16,400,000. Officials of tho coni< | pany declared after checking up members of the night shift, at the works p that only two men were missing. Tweh't! | others were cut by flying debris but non® % of them were seriously hurt. No estiy--; mate of the loss was obtainable. »^J||§ There were two distinct explosions, thS | force of which was terrific. Building | were shaken and windows shattered W % out on Long Island and up the Hudson J River to Poughkeepsie. iiplf The first explosion was in what ~it|§ fj known as "The Glazing Barrel." TN j fire which resulted spread quickly to tWg | blending house and from there 'to threa 8- t magazines. One of tho magazines ble«' | up but the powder in the ethers wss cc2 < | sumed by the flames. '|I®§j§ The blazing magazines set fire to thfl | screening house, from which the flames j leaped across the Wanaque River and cWM : sumed three drying hou;ns on the otfae-'' side. At this point the fire was cbeck^^j by the efforts of the company's employees J Other buildings in the plant and niaa/ | in the village which was built in a tcjM | circle around the works were shattered, by the force of the concussion, which I by far the 1 most severe evjr experienced at Haskell. It- is feared that two n#* p| who were employed in the glazing barrel | lost their lives. All the doctors avail#®! were summoned, as were , the Francis# | 2xotliexs fcoja Butler, soma distance ;