GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 660, 12 April 1870, Page 4

GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION.

A fatal explosion of gunpowder occurred at Brynmawr, a mining town on the southern border of the counties of Brecon and Mod mouth, on January 14. It appears that a lad named Evan Evans, in the employ of Messrs Thomas Watkins and Co. grocers, was sent to the warehouse at the back of their shop to fetch some gunpowder. The lad then, it is supposed, struck a match for the purpose of lighting the candle, and in doing so caused the explosion of three or four casks, each of which contained about lOQlbs of powder. He was blown to pieces, and some parts of his body were subsequently found on the housetops at a considerable distance from the scene of the explosion. A little girl, named Catherine Lsek, about three years of age, who was playing near the place at the time, was struck by a stone and killed on the spot. Five other persons who were near, some walking in the street, and some in their houses, were more or less injured by the concussion and falling of Btones and pieces of timber ; one had a leg broken, another his head fractured, a third a shoulder dislocated. Some of the injured are expected to recover. The damage done to property is estimated at about L 3,000. All the windows of shops and dwellinghouses in several adjoining streets were broken, and walls were blown down and roofs carried away in all parts of the town.