TERRIBLE EXPLOSION

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2678, 10 September 1889, Page 2

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION

IMMENSE LOSS OF LIFE. | [r.Y KLKCNUC TKLKfliiAPir. -C'll'Vlll'iilC.l Lo.vnos, 'i. A C.VHTitniOE factory ;l : .; Antwerp exploded to-clav. Several petroleum faetorio.;ea:ight lire, and 100,000 barrels of petroleum burst. Bun.ssix*. Supt'.iiiilior 7. Tlio shock much resembled that of mi earthquake. It is estimated that fully three hundred persons wore killed and a thousand wounded. Tne river Scheldt was covered with burning petroleum, but fortunately the wind was blowing in a direction that loft tlio shipping untouched. Two hundred factory girls are either killed or seriously injurod. The genoral damago is most oxtensive. It is foarod that tko steeple of tlio Cathedral is injured. Every window in Antwerp was broken. All tlie crane machinery in connection with the port lies in ruins. September 7. The explosion of the cartridge factory at Antwerp was heard at Ghent, throe hundred miles away, and tlio Humes were visible in this city. A panic onsuod after the explosion, and many of tlio soldiers who were preserving order were suffocated. Tlie firemen were powerless to control the conflagration which broke out, and iivo acros of buildings were destroyed. The cathedral windows were all smashed, and the spire endangered.