TERRIBLE EXPLOSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19397, 4 August 1926, Page 8

TERRIBLE EXPLOSIONS.

DESTRUCTION OF ARSENAL. LOSS OF MANY LIVES. DAMAGE ABOUT £20,000,000. Particulars of the terrible explosions at the United States Navy ammunition depot at Lake Denmark, New Jersey, on July 10, are contained in American newspapers received by yesterday's mail. These explosions, which were due to lightning, wrecked the depot and also destroyed the adjacent army arsenal at Piccatinny and some hundreds of buildings in the town of Dover were destroyed and about 3000 people were rendered homeless. Seventeen bodies were found in the ruins. The damage was estimated at about £20,000,000. The lightning struck one of (five magazines, each of which contained 20001b of powder. Captain 0. G. Dowling. commandant of the arsenal, who was badly injured, gave the following account of the catas trophe: "I was m my quarters with Mrs. Dowling when the fire alarm rang. Some one had seen a wisp of smoke curling from the roof of one of the /nagazines and sounded the fire call. I jumped into my automobile, which was in front of my quarters, and drove directly to (he magazine from which the smoke was issuing. The magazine was filled with TNT depth bombs. When I was within two or three hundred feet of it there came a terrific explosion, which hurled me out of my car. " The exploding TNT set fire to another magazine, which set fire to the one containing smokeless powder. When this exploded, it set oft some high explosive shells, and when these began to let go it meant the demolishing of practically every building in the reservation. There was nothing we could do to fight the fire and we could only run before it."

Mrs. Dowling's Graphic Story. The miraculous escape of .Mrs. Dowling, wife of Captain Dowling, is' a story of experiences rivalling those of fleeing refugees in war-stricken France. Mrs. Dowling tokl the story of the' night of horror to day as she sat in the home of a friend at Glen Ridge. She still wore the gingham dress given her after her eight-mile run through th 6 woods, during which her lace dinner frock was torn to shreds. Her arms were covered with scratches and bruises. Mrs. Dowling said: "We all went through hell last night. That is the only word that adequately describes it. I was sitting with Captain Dowling in the sun parlour of our. home watching the storm. Suddenly a livid streak of lightning (lashed zig-zag down the sky. A few minutes later the telephono rang. I answered it and an orderly said there was a fire at the west gate. When I told my husband, he cried, "Oh, my God!" seized his raincoat and was off down the hill in his automobile in a Hash. I went to the back window when the first explosion came. It broke every back window in the house, shook the "plaster from the walls, knocked everything over and threw me f.o the floor. I staggered downstairs. When the second explosion came, and as I weut through the front door the roof came crashing in. Then came the third explosion, ajid I fell three times on the way to tho'gates. As I . reached them they toppled over before me. I turned in the direction of the magazine, I saw what looked like a mountain of fire rolling toward me. "Behind our house is a heavy wood, and I decided to go in there, hoping that the wet trees would save me from being burned alive. I saw others dashing through the woods and. joined them. With his lip torn half off and bleeding over his entire face, a young pharmacist named Bernard Shackman took me by the arm and helped me to run. "Help Us to Get Away!"

"We ran along the railroad tracks in the direction of Green Pond. There were about eight marines in the group. As wo ran along the tracks, every few' minutes some ono would call 'down everybody. Then we would lie flat upon the ground, while shrapnel and fiery masses whizzed over our heads. We kept this up for eight miles, until we reached a cabin beyond the firing area." A newspaper correspondent writes:— "Dazed, hysterical womep rushing in all directions, babies crying, men searching frantically for members of their families — everybody fallihg pell mcll into the first trains that happened along, going somewhere, anywhere! Those distracted creatures turned Dover into a city of horrors on Sunday, July 11, following the explosions that wrecked it on the previous day. 'Oh, Lord, help us to get away from here.' That was the universal cry. Anywhere, into the clean, cool air; anywhere away from smoke and noise and desolation; anywhere that temporary homes could be set up and hurts healed; anywhere but in that awful neighbourhood where at any minute another roar might tell of more death and injury. "The intense heat from smoking buildings made two square miles unapproachable and made rescue work extremely difficult. And there was always the fear that the army arsenal, so close by, would go. The early morning hours particularly were filled with despair. Hundreds of people had left the scene by any means of transportation available during the hours immediately following the catastrophe. But daylight, found hundreds of others wandering around, trying to find parents, children, mothers, fathers." Wreckage of Army Buildings. Another account reads:—"Not one of the 500 army buildings was intact'. Each looked as if it had keen roughly handled bv some mischievous giant. Concrete buildings looked as if they had been smashed with a gigantic sledge hammer. A shell store, in which 40,000 empt.v shells were stored, 300 ft. long, 40ft, wide, was like a shredded wheat biscuit. Its strips of r galvanised iron had been ripped apart, leaving the shells exposed." Mrs. Herman Schrader. wife of an officer, perhaps expressed the common sentiment when she exclaimed: —"It was a living hell. I never before realised what a horrible thing war is."