Nancy and all, from the Stanhope Eagle, Thursday, September 19, 1940 - KENVIL POWDER EXPLOSION The multiple explosions at the Hercules Powder plant near Kenvil about 1:30 last Thursday afternoon have so far resulted in the loss of forty-nine lives; serious injuries to possibly fifteen more, and slight injuries and shock to about 200. Apparently the two large explosions were preceded by a fire in the new "solvents recovery" plant, and these were followed by a series of explosions in the isolated buildings of the "B-line" group. The cause of any such fire is unknown, as there was a "match" search by officials only an hour before the blast. The fire which followed the explosions continued well in Friday. Immediate calls were sent out for all doctors, nurses, ambulances, rescue squads and fire departments in this area. All other persons were kept out of the plant grounds. Uninjured employees were used in aiding the rescue work, which was performed amid danger as there was still many tons of explosives untouched and not far from the fire. Many tons of nitro-glycerin were buried underground in an adjacent hill, but this did not go off. The plant manufactures nitro-glycerin, dynamite and smokeless powder, and it was the latter section which went up. The first two were not injured to a great extent, and their production will go on, while new smokeless powder units are being built. There has been much speculation as to whether the blast was accidental or the resulf of sabotage. Investigations are being conducted by plant officials, the FBI, State Police, the Dies Committee of Congress and intelligence officers of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, but none of their findings have been given out to the public. Particular praise should be given to the State Police, local police, doctors, ambulance men and uninjured employees for their untiring work in getting the injured out of the fallen and burning buildings and on their way to hospitals. Dover General Hospital treated well over 200 persons (their capacity is only 104 beds.) and others were taken to the two Morristown hospitals. Posted by Kirsten in MD, with thanks to Thea Dunkle for sending me this article. I wonder what, if anything, the investigations turned up. Sabotage? Or did they still not have needed safety procedures? I wonder if the upcoming war caused production pressures that contributed to this tragedy. There are obituaries for six men who died as a result of the blast immediately below the article. They were Harold E. OBDYKE, Edward E. ALLEN, Ralph A. GRANATO, Nicholas PISANO, John ANDICO, and Natalino J. FERRANIALO. Here is a list of the dead; SURNAMES on the following lists are not all CAPS. IT IS DIFFICULT TO TELL THE NUMBERS 3 AND 8 APART on my copy; so be warned that some ages may be incorrectly transcribed! Edward E. Allen, 20, Budd Lake John P. Andico, 27, Netcong Harold A. Baker, 28, Dover J. F. Barnish, Dover Harry L. Beck, 29, Patchogue, L. I. Jesse E. Bennett, 67, Dover William T. Black, 32 or 82, Flanders Stewart Carroll, 26, Morristown Vernon A. Cocking, 33, Kenvil Raymond T. Corby, 50, Rockaway Wiley Dejong, 35, Mendham Evart J. Dunn, Kenvil Edward Extrom, Kenvil R. H. Ethan Fancher, 22, Succasunna Natalino Ferranialo, 26, Port Morris Ralph A. Granato, 22, Port Morris Elijah Greer, 20, Andrews, N. C. John B. Griffith, 20, Budd Lake Raymond Gulick, 32, Wharton Willard Halkyard, 40, Catawissa, Pa. Elmer Hildebrant, 30, Kenvil Willard S. Jordan, 38, Syracuse, N. Y. Peter Knott, 27, Kenvil James G. List, 34, Kenvil Frederick McConnell Jr., 20, Kenvil Raymond Moore, 44, Landing Charles [middle initial D?] Mosser, 45, Pequannock Wayne Nielson, 26, Ferndale, Mich. Robert Nolan, 64, Kenvil Harold E. Obdyke, 48, Netcong Reuben Parks, 51, Dover Edward H. Payne, 20, Randolph twp. Nicholas Pisano, 23 or 28, Netcong William Quackenbush, 18, Kenvil Harry J. Reed Jr., 22, Kenvil John Savko, 20, Mt. Hope Richard Scott, 25, Dover Walter D. Sisco, 31, Branchville Jack W Smith, 18, Shonghum Russell S. Sossong, 28, Ledgewood Paul W. Stalcup, 33, Mt. Arlington William H. Stephens, Succasunna Alvin Stout, West Belmar Charles Swan, Kenvil Charles Tice, 47, Mine Hill George C. Tobier, 27, Bartley Warren Waldron, Mt. Arlington Raymond A. Woods, 18, Kenvil "Among the more seriously injured, the following local names appear: William Bell, Netcong Charles Damelio, Netcong Roy S. Hull, Jr., Stanhope Daniel Keegan, Netcong Sam Oliva, Netcong John Sansevero, Netcong The following local persons were treated for minor cuts or burns: Fordyoe Boyer, Robert Brewster, Willard Masker and Frank Parns, all of Netcong; Frank Frenenski and Chas. Platt of Stanhope; Elroy Chapman and Gordon Hildebrant of Flanders; Henry C. Crawn, and Anthony Valentino of Port Morris." On Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:18:21 -0400, pascalfl wrote > That's three different articles about exlosions at the area powder > works. If anyone comes across any others, I'd like to have them. > > Nancy > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "karen wreden" <kmwgen@earthlink.net> > To: <njsussex@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 7:04 AM > Subject: [NJSUSSEX] Stanhope Eagle > > > When I was looking for some obits, I found these articles: > > > > Stanhope Eagle Wed, Feb 19, 1908 > > > > Powder Works Exploded - The mixing house of the Hough Powder Works on > > the south side of the Lackawanna railroad between Chester Junction and > > Wharton, had an explosion of dynamite yesterday morning at five minutes > > past eleven o'clock, the force of which was distinctly felt here. Three > > men were killed, viz.: Joseph HOUGH, superintendent of the company; > > Jeremiah UTTER, of Berkshire Valley, and James KAVERN. Only eight men > > were at work on the grounds. > > The shock of the explosion went mainly toward Wharton and Dover. The > > building on the property of the late engineer, Ed King, were wrecked, the > > Wharton school house had quite all the windows blown out and was > > considerably damaged otherwise. The school children in session were > > almost seized with panic. All the large plate glass windows in the R. F. > > Oram store were wrecked and smashed into bits. > > Other buildings in Wharton were of course badly wrecked, but the two > > mentioned were the heaviest losers. Buildings in Dover had the window > > glasses broken by the immense force of the explosion. The No. 3 fast line > > to Buffalo was within a short distance of the explosion, running at her > > usual speed and every window on the south side, even including the plate > > glass ones of the heavy Pullman cars, was broken out. Many of the > > passengers were injured. At Port Morris, Drs. Thayer and Nelden were > > summoned by telephone and the train stopped here. Dr. Neldon hastily > > prepared bandages and lint, &c, but the train would not wait for his > > arrival and took Dr. Thayer with it to Washinton. The suffering > > passengers were riding practically in open air with a keen wind blowing > > and for a distance of thirty miles at that. One of them, a commercial > > traveler, was so badly injured that he was left at Washington. Two other > > cars were secured at Washington for the better comfort to the pass! > > engers and the train proceeded on its way. > > > > Seems that there were a number of "powder works" in the area that exploded > > during these years. > > Karen, NJ > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > NJSUSSEX-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NJSUSSEX- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message -- Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)