Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-12-30 | Page 1 | Three Blown up in Bacchus Explosion

THREE BLOWN UP II BACCHUSEXPLOSIOIV Powder-Press Building Is Demolished With Roar; Damage About $2000. With a roar and tmKh that was heurd and felt over a wide area of the surrounding" sur-rounding" country, the black powder-press building of the Herouk-s Powder company ! ai. Bacchus blew up shortly before 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Three men--Fran It 1j;11K 24 years of aj;e: ".Jimmy" Hansen, aboi,t ;:0, and Kl-mer Kl-mer i Junior, "0 were in "Jic building a t (he time of the explosion. Ellis and Hansen Han-sen were Instantly killed and Hunter wafi ; so r.everely burned and bruised t ha t he 'died in an ambulance on hU way lo the Holy Truss hospital. j The linancial loss, according to ;t-neral .MriiiUKr J. MrCraiinvv, will not exceed ex-ceed ?2iKi'). Although every stitch of" .-lothin was blown Ironi the bodies ot Ellis and Hansen, Han-sen, the bodies, although Uirited black and badly bruised, were not mutilated to a nrea(. exienl. Most of th viothitiK of Hunter also was blown to .shreds by (lie force of t he explosion and he was badly burned. bla-'Ucne'l an( bruised, but not mutilated noticeably. Ellis's body was blown a distanc of about 100 t-pt from 1h; bu doing, while Hansen's body was found within about fifte?n feet- Hunter was blown a distance of about thirty f-et. T!se force of tl e explosion was so ci'at that It blew thp hnildin- into splint p is. wide were scattered ior several hundred feet in every direction, ami it also blowout, blow-out, portions ot thp .onr-r-te and slonc foundation of the structure. An S't-poun'1 powder car whh h w;is in the budding and was lifin loaded with powilr was blown a dislun-'e of a ho ut S Jj.or in p--dent Joseph Me t and Fore- '. man 'oiiL-den h;,d been hi trie builujnu e ; ft w mhi'jb'L: i .rc'-edinp the - pins on a nd were about i".n0 Jeet away when the accj-u-pi occurred. . - The itoist- and shock of the explosion caused Intense, rxcit ej-pr nt in Mana and i hp surround I ne: - set tiemeni s, and telephones tele-phones were kpt busy i'or several hours (Continued on Page Two.) " j THE BLOWN UP II " BACCHUS EXPLOSION (Continued from Page One.) in an effort to obtain full particulars of the accident. As soon as possible after the explosion, Drs. Musser and Robinson and Acting Coroner Reid of Mana hurried to the scene. The bodies of Ellis and Hansen were then removed to Bacchus and first aid waa rendered to Hunter, who was in a dyln? condition. Loiter the bodies of Ellis and Hansen were brought to the Kvans undertaking establishment in this city. The Holy Cross ambulance was rushed to Bacchus for Hunter, but the injured man died on the way, and the body was taken to the Qualtrough-All-cott undertaking establishment. Kllis came here from Hercules. Cal., about a year ago, and the body will be sent there for burial. Hansen was a resident of Fountain Green and the body ulll be sent to that place. Hunter, who leaves a widow and three children, was the son of Jacob Hunter, who resides at 14 23 Blaine avenue, this oiiy. : , Discussing the explosion last evening Manager McCanney said that there was Absolutely nothing lo indicate that it was from other than a purely accidental ac-cidental cause. The forty or more buildings comprising the immense powder pow-der and dynamite plant are carefully guarded hy picked men and stringent rules are enforced to reduce the chance of an explosion to a minimum. Hunter, who was conscious a part of the time preceding his death, said when questioned that he had no idea of the cause ot" th1 explosion. It came in a flash and without warning, he added. Manager McGanney says that a possible possi-ble solution of the cause of the explosion might be that a grain or two of sand blew into the machinery, producing friction fric-tion which might have caused a fatal spark. It might- be possible, of course, for frictiun to have been caused In some other way, he added. The plant of the Hercules Powder company com-pany is situated at Bavhus. about five miles south of Mugna and about eighteen eight-een miles southwest of Salt lake. There are between forty and fifty buildings and the plant cost approximately $1,I,(II.00Q. Dynamite and black powder are uianu-I uianu-I factured in immense quantities, but so far no powder for war purposes has been n: id p. The building are sf-perater from e;nh other by distances of from ;iui to 4"'i ff-et 1 1 minimize the d a n g e i of an explosion in any one building afffH-ting the other Sl ! 'i-'t HITS. , The powder-press building is used for 4 the pressing of the powder into cakes, after which it is run through other machines ma-chines and reduced to small pieces euit-able euit-able for blasting purposes.