TEXAS DEAD OVER 500

Chronicle (Levin), 21 April 1947, Page 5

TEXAS DEAD OVER 500

Press Assn .

Bulldozers Tnrn Rubble In Search of Bodies

By Telegraph .

-Copyright '

Received Sunday, T.B0 p.m. ' .NEW ituRK, April 19. Tlie number of known dead in the Texas' Ci'ty disaster is nofvV reported at ^ oi2. Weary fesctie Workers eorttinue to search t&r bodies but an aecurate count ] is difficult because maiiy" bodies are in pleces. ' ? * ' " " • 1 The pfesident of the Monsanto • Gheinical*. C'ompany", ' Mr. William Rand, > said 108 employees luiown to have been i in the plant'at the' thhe of the disaster, ' were not vet accouhted for. - Forty employees were known to be dead and 80 j were in hospital. A , message from Paris said the j General Transatlantic "Company, own-, ers of the French ship Grand Camp, , denied reports that the vessel was ; earrying anns. The ship" was scheduled ( to load a'carg'o of arms from.AntWerp ■ but at the tinie of the explosion was earrying animonium nitrate fertiliser. ( Rescue parties, ecjuipped with bull- . doz.ers, are turning oyer liundreds of t03is of wreckage in their search for hodies believed to be still bxiried. Fronr dawu, nien, womeh and children moved in long lines to dejpots to identify relati-ves killed in the exulosions on Wednesday and Thursday. While the ilres are (lying down, the eity is still a smouldering rain and the danger of new explosi'ohs lias not yet passed. Forty-six victims of the disaster have developecl syinpi'tonis of gas gangrene, says a report from Gaveston. .Dr. Bulaski, of the Brooke General • Hospital, Sun Antonio, said there shouid be no general alarm over the gangrene developnient, as all the 4(3 vietims were exposed to poisonous fuines from clilorine tanks. Asbcstos-suited volunteers today began to penetrat-e the still smoking ruins of the Monsanto plant in search of vietims, and later the Coastguard, liroadcasting from a mobiie transmitter on the spot, said that live people were being uncovered in the Monsanto ruins. Reporters were barred from the Monsanto ama and, therefore, were unable to eonlirm the Coastguard report. It seems impossible that anyonev could have lived through the terrible explosions and lires of the past 4S honrs. An Assqciated Press correspondent said that the officer in charge of the rescue equipment has been on the scene since 'dayliglit and has not found any vietims alive. After being subdued, fire broke out afresh late yesterdav afternoon at an oil refinerv .and is being fought in an efl'ovt to prevent it spreading to the high octane petrol storage, which so far niirneuouslv has escaped daniage.