Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1916 — ANOTHER POWDER BLOW HP—7 HURT [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER POWDER BLOW HP—7 HURT

Dupont Co. Damaged SIOO,OOO By Four Flares—Skies Are Lighted Up Thirty Miles Away. Wilmington, Del., Jan. 28.—Seven workmen were burned, three seriously, in four fires that occurred at the Carneys Point, /N. J., plant of the Dupont Powder Company at 6 o’clock tonight. The cause has not been determined. One hundred and eighty thousand pounds of smokeless rifle powder were consumed, causing a loss estimated at SIOO,OOO. The buildings were destroyed but they were not valuable. The fires following in quick succession and lighted the skies for more than thirty miles around. The streets here, five miles from the scene, were brilliantly lighted. The first fire occurred in a rifle powder detention house: The victims were working in that structure. This spread to another detention house in Plant No. 3, then to a rifle powder dry house and a car unloading house several hundred feet away. There were no explosions, the accident being confined to “flares.” Two hours after the four flares a service house in Plant No. 3 ignited and was destroyed, together with 1,200 pounds of smokeless powder. This was independent of the previous fires. It was a development of the burning of a “sweetie” house nearly ten days ago. Since that time the service has been smoldering and as a precaution a guard had been maintained around it. No one was hurt.