This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/GdW.2ACIB/283 Message Board Post: 2 April 1896 Cincinnati Post To Pieces Two Men Were Torn by a Boiler Explosion Fragments of Their Bodies in Tree Tops A Third Man was Injured and Will Die Terrible Sawmill Accident Near Milford, O. Killed W. R. Fitzwater, 43, single Ernest Martin, 21, single Fatally Injured Fred Groves, 45, spine injured Seriously Injured Hiram Fitzwater, leg broken Aquilo Fitzwater, left arm broken and side injured A terrible boiler explosion that cost the lives of two men occurred at 10 o’clock Wednesday morning on the Woodville Pike, four miles northeast of Milford. The cause of the accident is as yet unavailable. Fred Groves, of Miamiville, is the owner of a portable sawmill and recently removed his mill and portable engine from that place to the farm of W. R. Fitzwater on the Woodville Pike, to saw barn timbers for Fitzwater. The engine had been in operation at that place nearly a month and work was started Wednesday morning as usual. When the boiler exploded five men were in the building. W. R. Fitzwater, Ernest Martin, the engineer and fireman; Fred Groves, Hiram Fitzwater and Aquilo Fitzwater, the latter two being sons of the owner of the farm. The bodies of Fitzwater and Martin were torn into fragments and the flesh was strewn over a distance of nearly 1000 feet. Legs, arms and other portions of the bodies were hanging in the tree tops and formed a gruesome sight. Fred Groves was fatally injured by the heavy steel smokestack which fell on him. Hiram and Aquilo Fitzwater were seriously cut and bruised about the head and body, but will recover. Messengers were immediately sent to Milford for physicians, and Dr. Gatch responded. Coroner W. R. Applegate, of Branch Hill, was also summoned. All the men were single excepting Fred Grover, the owner of the mill. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it is thought that some foreign substance found lodgment in the interior of the engine, which caused its failure to pump water into the boiler. The Fitzwater home is near the scene of the catastrophe and when the dead found and the two injured sons were brought in, the home presented a heartrenching scene, and brought tears to the eyes of those who witnessed the ordeal.