GREAT DYNAMITE EXPLOSION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 379, 3 May 1910, Page 5

GREAT DYNAMITE EXPLOSION

IMMENSE DAMAGE AT KOBE. ! FELT FOR MILES AROUND. By Cable—Press Association—-Copyright. Received May 2, 9.25 p.m. Sydney, Last Night. Details of the explosion in Kobe har- > cabled on 14th April, as to hand. It was caused by a fire aboard Niekelo and Co.'s powder hulk, on which were 3000 cases of dynamite, -50 cases of detonators, and 2300 cases of gelignite. The whole city was violently shaken as by a severe earthquake, while ■wrecked and damaged houses were on every hand. The impression given was that the city had been swept bv a typhoon. •' The amount of damacre. which extends over a very wide area, cannot be estimated. Many houses in the immediate vicinity of the disaster are totally wrecked or badly damaged. Scarcely a house in the foreign settlement and on the hill has a whole window or door, and there are other evidences of the tremendous force of the three explosions which closely followed each other. , Three other lighters had dynamite aooard. They were Ivin? near, and were so .badly damaged that they .became waterlogged. Luckily they did not explode. Only one life was lost—a watchman aboard a hulk—though a number were injured, including passengers on a tramway.

The explosion was heard and felt for miles around.