A Terrible Explosion

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 37, 10 September 1889, Page 2

A Terrible Explosion

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright, (PEB UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION.) t Bedß«els,. September 6. A cartridge factory, at Antwerp exploded to-day. Two hundred workmen were , killed, and one hundred wounded. Several petroleum factories adjoining caught fire, a hundred thousand barrels of were burnt! September 7. It was Oorvilain's cartridge factory which exploded, and the shock much resembled that of an earthquake. Its effect was even more disastrous than' at first reported, and it is now estimated that fully three -hundred persons were killed, and a thousand wounded. \ The Eiver Schelde- was covered with burning petroleum, but fortunately the wind was blowing in a' i direction that left the shipping untouched. 1 Two hundred factory girls are either killed' or seriously injured. The general damage to the port of Antwerp and the city, including the bourse, is most extensive. It is feared that the steeple of the cathedral is injured, and every window in Antwerpis broken. All the crane machinery in connection with the port lies in ruins. A block of buildings covering a space of two acres has been destroyed: by a fire which occurred after the petroleum explosion. September 9. The explosion of the cartridge' factory at Antwerp was - heard at Ghent, over 30 miles away, and the flames were visible m this city, A panic ensued after . the explosion, and many of the soldierß who were preserving order were suffociated. Thefireman were powerless to control the conflagration which broke out, and five acres of buildings were destroyed. The Cathedral windows were all smashed, and the spire endangered. The. excitement over the explosion of the cartridge factory at Antwerp is subsiding. The damage is enormous.