EXPLOSION AT A MUNITIONS FACTORY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 23 January 1917, Page 5

EXPLOSION AT A MUNITIONS FACTORY.

MUNITIONS OUTPUT UNAFFECTED i.ONDON, Jan, 20. A munitions factory explosion occurred yesterday. The loss of life has not yet been ascertained, but it is not nearly as groat as was at first anticipated. ' Thirty or forty bodies have been recovered, while 100 wore seriously injured. The explosion will make practically no difference to the output of munitions. The King and Government have expressed their sympathy with the sufferers. Official. —The explosion in the munitions factory occurred in the neighbourhood of London, in the evening. It is feared there was considerable loss of life and damage. The fire started in the mixing shop. Dr Angell, 1 lie chief chemist, while advising the operatives to seek safety, himself attempted to combat the fire and perished. The flames spread to an adjoining building in which a quantity of high explosives were stored. Buildings miles away rocked. The force of the detonation did great destruction to glass over an enormous area, while an awful bouquet fell on surrounding build-

ings. Firemen, police, ambulances and the military rushed to the scene. The casualties were so heavy that the amj balances were insufficient to remove the victims to the hospitals. Military ambulances were summoned, and motor I buses and other vehicles in the streets were requisitioned. Finally a five minutes convoy was organised. The more seriously injured were quickly removed to hospitals which were commandeered. It was impossible for the doctors and nurses to keep a record of the numbers of patients. It was a terrible scene when a large seven-storied flour mill burst into flames It is feared many therein perished, but owing to the impossibility of getting such a blaze under control the firemen were obliged to devote their energies to saving neighbouring property. The flames spread swiftly, until over an area nearly a square mile fires were burning, making it necessary to demolish certain buildings to check the progress of the flames. The firemen were thus able to restrict the definite urea. Throughout the night and well into the day they worked heroically. Nurses, ambulance men, boy scouts and girl guides co-operated in alleviating the suffering. Many pathetic incidents are recorded. Many munition workers were enabled to leave the building in the interval between the outbreak and the explosion. The force of the explosion was felt from seven to eight miles away. Many windows wore broken. Those living in city hotels on tire Thames Embankment thought it was an earthquake. An eye-witness three miles away described the appalling spectacle. The sky for miles around gleamed like burnished copper. The area presents a wide scene of desolation. there being smoking ruins, walls shattered, roofs blown off, windows and doors torn from their fastenings, remnants of chimneys and gables littering the causeways. At the sound of the first explosion the inhabitants rushed into the streets terror-stricken. The second caught them. As the concussion stripped roofs showers of slates fell on their unprotected heads. Numbers were injured in this way,, but the destruction and terror in lanes in the vicinity was nothing compared with the appalling scenes nearer the region of the explosion. A series of fires quickly developed over a considerable area. Great factories, employing many men, women and girls, were soon gigantic masses of flames, the glow lighting the river and suburbs for miles. Dismantled houses were used as temporary mortuaries and private houses received the more seriously wounded. The explosion was oue of the most terrible in the experience of the metropolis. The entire city, to the outlying suburbs, was shaken. Fires caused by flying debris enveloped an area involving many industrial concerns and man}' houses. Forty are reported killed, but this is apparently an estimate of the results of the first accident at the factory, which was entirely destroyed. As the fire spread, roof after roof collapsed with terrific crashes. The scene was awful in its grandeur. Evidence of the force of the explosion is given in the fact that a piece of bpilon. weighing between ‘dhk-'oo and four tons, was found in a field -100 yards away. Another piece, weighing a ton, crashed into a butcher’s shop, killing the occupants Twenty-one died in ten hospitals yesterday. Therefore the death roll is now between fifty and sixty. In-pa-tients number 112, in addition to 285 more slightly injured, who are beingtreated. I'qople fled from burning and shattered buildings, but soon found a ready sanctuary. 'All classes mobilised to succour the wounded and rescue the living i.i cm the wrecKage. Everyone — men and women—nobly played their parts. Great crowds congregated, but sightseers were not permitted within a mile or more of the actual scene. The origin of the explosion cannot bo actually determined at present,. 'The !

j establishment of a cordon round the ; zone of operations prevented confusion I and panic. The firemen s task was dif- | ficult and dangerous, but finally they [ overcame all obstacles. Some remarkj able rescues were made as the result | of the combined efforts of the firemen, ; police, soldiers and ambulance men, I whose conduct was marked by high i courage and presence of mind, which I saved many. Considering the magnitude of the disaster, it is a wonder the deaths were not far greater. The power of high explosives was plainly demonstrated by boiler plates, weighing tons, being hurled hundreds of yards. Twisted iron girders fell greatI er distances, while a rain of smaller I fragments was scattered widely. This i 0 | started fires in neighbouring factories, j LONDON, Jan. 21. A peculiar feature of the explosion is that places on either side of the river suffered most severely, the concussion aceminglly Travelling Turthen over the water than on land. Buildings several miles down the river were more damaged than some of those closer to the scene. In some cases in the heart of London windows were smashed, and much damage was done to glass at Brixton, Glockley and Greenwich. The | shock was most severe at Lewisham and • Catford. An eye-witness of the removal of women and girls from demolished buildings describes the scenes as heartrending. Thg women were unconscious, many having apparently been stunned by the shock. Some had their clothing almost stripped off, and others had terrible burns. Charred tugs conveyed many sufferers to hospitals across the river.

A glass roof at Poplar Hospital was badly damaged by falling debris. Sixteen motor pumps, two river floats, numberless firemen and eighty ambulances were busy all night long. A spectacular incident was the ignition of a gasometer, which flared up, illuminating the whole of London. The men at the gas works wore unharmed.

The Thames, with its teeming shipping. was lit up like a stream of molten gold. The crowds were spell-bound, and silent before the spectacle, which was appalling, but magnificent, glowing sullenly through the clouds of dense black smoke.