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Show . . Fatalities Still in Doubt; Three Known Dead, Five Missing; Scores s Injured, Some Mortally; Mortal-ly; Terrific Detonations Detona-tions Were Felt in Five States. EXACT CAUSE IS NOT DETERMINED Investigation Started to Ascertain If Barge Had Been Fired as Result of Plot; Lehigh ( Valley Loses Thirteen Warehouses Ware-houses and Six Piers. By International News Service. NEW YORK, July 30. Reports tonight set the number 'of dead in the New Jersey explosion at from forty to fifty. More than 100 were injured. Various estimates place the property prop-erty damage at from $35,000,000 upward. up-ward. Three bodies have been recovered. recov-ered. Five other persons are known to be missing. No accurate idea of the fatalities can be had until a canvass is made. This is now under way. Investigation of the disaster has been begun by the New Jersey public pub-lic utilities commission. Complaints alleging manslaughter will be made, it is said, against Albert Al-bert M. Dickman, agent at Black Tom of the Lehigh Valley Railroad company; Theodore B. Johnson of the Johnson Lighterage Ss Towing company and Albert Davidson, superintendent su-perintendent of the National Docks & Storage company. NEW YORK, July 30. Property loss estimated at $25,000,000 was caused early today by a series of terrific explosions ex-plosions of ammunition awaiting shipment ship-ment to the entente allies and stored on Black Tom island, a small strip of land jutting into Xcw York bay off Jersey City. The loss of life still was problematical tonight. It will not be determined de-termined definitely until there has been opportunity to check up the workmen employed on the island and on boats; moored near by. Scores Injured. Three are known to be dead and at least five are missing. Scores of persons per-sons were injured, some of theni probably prob-ably mortally. The detonations, which were felt in five states, began with a continuous rp-id rp-id fire of small shells, the blowing up of great quantities of dynamite, trinitrotoluol trinitro-toluol and other high explosives, followed fol-lowed by the bursting of thousands ot shrapnel shells, which literally showered the surrounding country ..and water for many -miles around. Fire that started soon after the first great crash, which spread death and desolation in its wake, destroyed thirteen thir-teen of the huge warehouses of the .N"a-1 tional Storage company on Black Torn island, in whifh was stored mechandise valued between $12,000,00) and $13,-000,000. $13,-000,000. Reflect on Skyline. The flames, shooting into tho clouds, were reflected against New York 's "skvline" of towering office .buildings, which only a few moments before were shaken to their foundations by an earthquake. earth-quake. Miles of streets in Manhattan alone were strewn with broken glass and shattered signs. Early reports of heavy loss of life were impossible of verification, and the authorities asserted tho number of deaths probably would be small. It was said that, owing to the extent of the wreckage, it might be several days he-foro he-foro the exact figures could be obtained. The cause of the disaster had not been determined tonight. Officials of the Na- (Continued on Page Two.) 520,000,000 IS THE TOTAL LOSS OF EXPLOSION Many of Scores Injured j Will Probably Die; Federal Fed-eral Probe Is Sought. (Continued from Page One.) tional Storage company and the Lehigh Valley railroad, wnicji aJso suffered heavily through loss of property, declared, de-clared, however, that reports to them showed a fire started shortly after 1 o'clock this morning on a barge belonging belong-ing to an independent towing company that had been moored alongside a dock used by the railroad company to transfer trans-fer ammunition shipments from trains to vessels in the harbor. Without Authority. The barge, it was said, was there without authority of either the railroad or the storage company. The, officials refused to disclose the name of the independent in-dependent to whig company, saying they were investigating "to ascertain whether wheth-er (he barge purposely had been set on fire as the result of a plot." Warrants charging manslaughter were issued late tonight for the arrest of Albert Al-bert M. Bickmau, agent at the Black Tom island docks for the Lehigh Valley Railroad company; Theodore B. Johnson, John-son, head of the Johnson Lighterage & Towing company, and Alexander Davidson, David-son, superintendent of the National Storage company. They are accused of having illegally permitted explosives to be stored where human life was endangered. en-dangered. i Johnson's company had been engaged, it was said, in lightering munitions from the docks to ships in the harbor. Kdmund L.. Mackenzie, president of the National Storage company, declared tonight to-night that the plant of his concern was valued at ?7. 000, 000, while the contents of the warehouses probably were worth SlO.OuO.OOO. One of the warehouses which remains intact, lie said, is rilled with chemicals. Besides the great quantity of raw sugar burned, there were 24.000 hates of tobacco; much matting from China and Japan, and other merchandise. The loss to his company and t lie railroad. Mr. Mackenzie said, was partly covered by insurance. Two Men Not Found. "As far as I have been able to ascertain, ascer-tain, after a personal investigation." said Mr. Mackenzie, "there apparently has not been a great loss of life. This undoubtedly un-doubtedly was due to the fact that few persons live in the immediate vicinity of our plant. There were, of course, a number of private watchmen and firemen (i the ground at the time, but all of theye except Jwo have been accounted for." The body of an unidentified young man ! was recovered from the water off the Iehigh Valley pier. A child in Jersey j City, according to the police, died from shock after ihe first of t he explosions. I Many men told thrilling stories of having j been blown hundreds of feet over land ; and water. Most of the sixty or more Injured taken to Jersey City hospitals were struck by shrapnel, falling glass or debris. Nearly all were in railroad yards or on craft moored near the island. Included among them are a few women and children chil-dren whose homes were on barges. Statue Is Damaged. Every window In the pedestal of the statue of liberty, on Bed toes island, opposite op-posite Black Tom, was broken, and the main door, made of iron and weighing almost a ton, was blown off its hinges. Ifcie statue itself, however, was not damaged, dam-aged, except from the rain of shrapnel which bespattered it. Although the plant which furnished power for Bedloes island was shaken and partly put out of commission, the famous "Ijieht of Liberty" burned steadily throughout the hours of confusion, flaming flam-ing high ahbve the pall of smoke. Karly reports of damage to the buildings build-ings on Kllis island were exaggerated, ac-eording ac-eording to Captain A. B. Fry, supervising supervis-ing engineer of federal buildings in New ork. Captain Fry said the loss could not exceed $,ri0.000. Most of the damage at the immigration station was caused by the force of l he explosion, which wrecked walks and buildings and shattered windows and doorways. Two barges, ablaze and laden with shrapnel shells, had drifted to t he island from the scene of the disaster. i A municipal fireboat and tug played streams of water on them from one side and Kllis island employees from the other, i An explosion on one of the barges damaged dam-aged ttte structure housing t lie power i plant. Immigrants Removed. s Two other fire-swept craft grounded on the southwest corner of tlie island, which contains the contagious diseases hospital. The medical staff removed the 450 immigrants out of l he island to the battery. i Many small craft, as well as many good-sized steamers and sailing vessels, were badly damaged. Crews on the big ocean liners, anchored out in the harbor or docked along the New Jersey and New York water fronts, declared that when j the first two great explosions occurred ! it appeared as if their vessels were lit-; lit-; erally picked up out of the water and then hurled back. .New York Awakened. v AH New York and cities within a radius of twenty-five miles were awakened by the explosions. Within an hour CM0 telephone calls went over the police wires from excited inquirers. Hundreds of thousands of persons, many of them scantily scan-tily clad, ran excitedly through the streets, while automobiles, containing policemen, po-licemen, firemen and others, dashed along. Detectives were rushed to Maiden fane, t he home of the jewelry Industry, to guard against thieves. t In the downtown section countless windows win-dows were broken. Scarcely an office biilding- from the Battery to Fit' l Icth street escaped damage. More than a score of persons, Recording to the police, were injured in Manhattan and Brooklyn from fixing glass. Thousands of persons in Jersey City fled to tiie parks after the first explosion. explo-sion. Pa nlc-st ricken women wheeled bnhy earriages about, some of them praying pray-ing and others scre;i mlng. Nor until after dawn was the scene changed from intense excitement to calmness. Then It was with difficulty that the police . held the crowds back from the scene of tlte disaster. The fire on Black Tom island still raged tonight. The large railroad yards of the Lehigh Valley, and the reclaimed nwadow land for miles around virtually were covered with great piles of wreckage wreck-age and countless shrapnel shells, many of which had not exploded. Thousands of persons who flocked there from New York. Jersey City and elsewhere watched hundreds of firemen at work In the ruins of the vast warehouse system. Many of the visitors carried away shrapnel sIipIIs as souvenirs. In some instances they had dug them from the earth two or three miles away from the scene of the explosion. C. W. heyden. chief of the Lehigh Valley railroad police, was killed while aiding an engine crew in attempting to save a number of freight cars from the fire. A quantity of dynamite exploded near where he was standing, it was said, and blew his body to atoms. The members mem-bers of the car crew escaped with lacerations lacer-ations and burns. The Lehigh Valley railroad tonight sent a telegram to tiie bureau of safety of tiie interstate commerce commission, inviting- co-operation In the investigation as to the cause of the explosions and fire. |