People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1896 — GAS TANK EXPLODES. [ARTICLE]

GAS TANK EXPLODES.

Two Men Killed and Four Injured at Redkey, Ind. Redkey, Ind., Jan. 22. —The mammoth gas pumping station of the Ohio and Indiana Pipe Line Company, located, one mile south of this place, exploded and caught fire last evening at 7 o clock. The shock of the explosion caused buildings to shake and sway as by an earthquake. Two men were killed and four injured. The dead: GODWIN, PALMER, assistant engineer, of Fairview: instantly killed; body burned to a crisp. WATKINS, JOSEPH, chief engineer, of Lafayette. Three other men on duty at the time were blown about 100 feet into a field and but slightly injured. Godwin leaves a widow and two children. The loss on buildings and machinery will be about SIOO,OOO. The station was fitted with very valuable and powerful machinery and was used to force the gas to Lima, Springfield, Wapakoneta, Piqua, and other Ohio cities and towns supplied by the Ohio pipe Line Company. Their supply is now cut off. The townspeople at once organized a fire brigade and assisted the local department in preventing a further spread of the flames. It seemed for a time that the business center might be swept away, but the fire fighters, after a hard battle, checked the progress of the blaze.