FEARFUL EXPLO/SlOtf AT BIRMINGHAM.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 821, 15 March 1871, Page 3

FEARFUL EXPLOSSION AT BIRMINGHAM.

[FROM THE HOME NEWS.]

Aiearful explosion occurred at Birmingham between twelve and one o'clock in the afternoon of Dec. 9, at the cartridge works of Messrs Ludlow, at Witton. The ' accident occurred in a large field adjoining the embankment of the South Staffordshire Railway, shortly after it passes Aston, At thia place there "were erected some nineteen sheds, in which about 500 persons, chiefly girls and boys, were eraplayed in the work of making and priming cartridges, their particular task at the time of the accident being the manufacture of Enfield cartridges for the French Government. It was one of the priming sheds, in which a good deal of powder was necessarily lying about, that the first explosion occurred, and from this it extended to two other sheds, the nearest of which was not more than from ten to twelve yards distant. The result was the entire destruction of the three sheds, in which some hundreds of persons were at work, and a frightful sacrifice of life. Seventeen persons were killed outright by the explosion, and fifty-three others, all women and g'rls, so seriously injured, that most of them could not be recognised, and had to be removed to the General Hospital. The scene in the vicinity of the accident was most distressing, the field for yards around being strewn with the mutilated remains of human bodies. Heads and limbs and fragments of clothing were scattered about, and the appearance of many of the charred and blackened survivors was horrible. There appear to have been five distinct explosions— the last at an interval of three or four minutes from the preceding one. The first is supposed to have occurred in the shed where the cartridges are made, and to have been caused by the accidental ignition of a woman's apron as she stood warming herself at a stove. The sheet of flame resulting from this explosion extended, to such a distance as to set on fire the two nearest sheds, which stood about fifteen yards off. All three •were completely wrecked, and the remainder more or less shattered by the concussion.

The number of deaths by this unprecedented disaster has reached, up to the present time, a total of twenty-five, but many more sufferers are expected to succumb. Only a few of the bodies have as yet been claimed, and it will be possible only by the absentees on the roll-call to ascertain whose are the charred remains still lying unclaimed. The sorrowing onlookers were fain to recognise a missing relative by the remnants of some missing articles of dress, by a fragment of stocking, by a ring left on an tmburnt finger, or by the hair which in some cases was only partially singed. In most instances all the lower part of the body was completely burned away, and only the shoulders and head remained. One shockingly-mutilated corpse at the Witton Arms lay without any head. It has been ascertained that all the decpased were women. One of the first to be identified was the body of a girl, named Harriett Smith, aged sixteen, Who was recognised by her father. The means of identification were slight — the shape of one of her boots and a button on her dress. This girl had been employed but a week, and she went to work without her father's knowledge or consent. He was not aware she was at work so dangerous till the day before the explosion. One body, lying at the Witton Arms, was claimed by three different sets of people. The husband of one of the three missing women — Mrs Mary Ann. Butler, of Erdington — was gtrongly of opinion that it was his wife, He bo judged from a portion of the stockings. The boots were missing, and the feet charred to stumps. That Mrs Butler was one of the dead there could be no doubt, and she leaves two young children, one eight months old. She had worked at the factory before she was married, and had continued to do so ever since. The body supposed to be that of Mrs Butler, was, however, claimed very shortly after by two young women, who by their piteous weeping on seeing the remains, and the earnestness and confidence of their statements, led the officers to believe that they were correct in identifying her as Maria Brown, a young married woman, 23 years of age, residing in Birmingham. Rose Morgan, niece of the missing woman, recognised her by her dress — a checked tartan — and by a piece of flannel which she wore round her neck. Her friends told how early in the week she had complained of a sore throat and begged a piece of flannel. This small article was the chief guide of identification that the state of the remains would allow. She had a husband ; but he had not come to seek her, and it was said that he deserted her. The aged mother of a girl, named Selina Bullivant, who was missing, claimed one of the bodies in the stable as that of her daughter, and a brother confirmed her statement. In this case a ring of a peculiar form was the only distinguished mark on the body of the deceased. Other two bodies were identified as those of Amelia Woodman, thirty-nine years of age, and married, and Jane Ward, a girl of fourteen. The daughter of Amelia Woodman, bearing the same Christian name as her mother, is among the missing, but cannot be identified. A mother and two daughters in great distress were anxiously searching all the afternoon for the remains of Mary Owen, one of their small family circle, who had been married little more than a year. The remains of seavnteen of the victims of this terrible calamity were interred at the Borough Cemetery, Witton, ou the 13th December, in the presence of a large concourse of mourners and spectators, including the proprietors of the works and the companions of the deceased. ] {Early in the forenoon, the bodies, encased in plain elm coffins, had been removed from the factory and the neighboring inri, where they had lain for identification, to the mortuary chapel in the cemetery, where a short but impressive service was read over them by the Rev. Charles Heaven. On the conclusion of the service in the chapel the coffins were borne to the graves which had been prepared for them in the upper part of the cemetery. The name 3 of the eight persons whose bodies had been identified were painted on the coffin plate ; the nine other plates were blank. The inquest upon the bodies of those sufferers who have died in hospital has been opened by Dr Birt Davies, the borough coroner. The proceedings were confined to the identification of the bodies and the reception of evidence

respecting any statements made by the deceased as to the cause of their death. On the latter point the principal facts elicited were that Margaret Burns, one of the deceased, had stated, in reply to her mother's questioning, that one woman was the cause of the accident, that two or three of the other sufferers had attributed the explosion to a woman's apron catching fire, and that another had been heard to say the stove in the centre of tne shed was sometimes red hot.

The resources of the Birmingham General Hospital have been taxed to the uttermost. There are only 235 beds, and before the sufferers began to arrive they were all full but six. Nine of the injured have died since their admission to the hospital, which makes the total deaths in this sad calamity twenty-six.

The histoiy of the Birmingham ammunition trade contains the record of many disastrous explosions. The first of these occurred in July, 1859, on premises belonging to the same firm as that concerned in this last disaster. It resulted in two deaths only. On August 22 another explosion happened at works belonging to Messrs Ludlow. In the following month, September, 1859, the most serious accident which has occurred up to the present one took place at the percussion <!ap factory of Messrs Pursall and Phillips. Seventeen bodies were taken from the ruins— the same number as killed last week. The jury censured the employers in this case for want of caution. In June, 1862, another serious and fatal explosion occurred at the percussion cap factory of Mr Walker, of Graham street ; nine deaths resulted, and thirty people were injured. During a thunderstorm in 1868 a fog signal factory in Birmingham took fire, and four girls were killed. The factory of Mr Kynock and Co. has been notorious during the last few months as the scene of numerous explosions. Eight deaths have resulted from the last two accidents at these works and many of the injured are now in the General Hospital.