TOWN WRECKED BY EXPLOSION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8333, 16 January 1907, Page 3

TOWN WRECKED BY EXPLOSION.

TERRIBLE GERMAN DISASTER. A terrible disaster occurred on Wednesday, November 28th, at the German roburite factory, lying between the village of Annen and the town of Witten, on the river Ruhr, in the province of Westphalia. Shortly after 8 o'clock at night two terrific explosions were heard. They completely wrecked the village of Annen, and shattered all the windows as far as Dortmund, ; a distance of five miles. The inhabitants fled in panic from the district, and the first reports said that 300 persons had been killed, and injured. Further explosions were feared, and all approach to the area cf the disaster was attended with the greatest risk. • . It appears that a fire broke out in -the mixing, room, and spread to the •packing shed, where the first explosion occurred. A stoker named Seller'was hurled a considerable dis- ' tance by the air pressure, and was killed. A boiler then exploded, the fragments wounding Herr Franke,the manager, in the head, killing the chemist, Herr Kurz, and also injuring several firemen. A large number of persons who were watching the fire were injured by a second explosion. There were 24,000 kilogrammes of roburite in the store-rooms before the fire broke out. Several bodies were burnt to cinders, and by the afternoon 26 persons were known to have perished, while about 50 were seriously and 100 slightly injured. Several houses in the vicinity of the works had partially fallen in. The Knapmann factory was badly damaged, but the damage done to some of the buildings belonging, to the Krupp works, from which the employees had fled, was not so serious. No aid could be given to the injured lying in the vicinity of the burning roburite factory, owing to the great risk entailed. Doctors were quickly on the scene from the i ' neighbouring towns. Many persons in Annen were slightly injured. Persons who know the locality state that an outbreak of fire would not have necessarily caused an explosion had the fire not been laid in one of the most dangerous rooms, and they suspect that the fire was maliciously caused. The majority of the bodies recovered were fearfully mutilated and charred by the flame. Even at Dortmund, 10 miles away, the explosion wrought havoc. The plate glass windows of shops fell in, and houses were shaken to their founda; tions. The people believed that an earthquake had taken place. At the station a train which had just drawn up at the platform was lifted bodily several feet by the force of the explosion. . / If is rumoured at the scene of the disaster that a dastardly outrage was perpetrated, fire being laid to the explosives on purpose; but this is not confirmed.