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Show OhIE MAN KILLED IN SHELL PL1T FIRE Superintendent Does Not Believe Blaze at Wilmington Wilming-ton Was Accidental. WILMINGTON", Pol.. Peo. 12. Officials Of-ficials of llu' projectile loading plant of the Bethlehem Steel company near New Castle, where 4000 three-inch fhrapnel shells exploded during a fire today, killing one man, are not convinced con-vinced that the origin of the fire was an accident. A statement triven out tonight to-night by P. G. Paris, superintendent of the plant, said: Although 1 have not yet completed my investigation as to the origin of the. fire, I do not see how it could have been accidental. Four or five men who happened to be in the neighborhood of the plant at the time the fire started were detaiued and held bv the guards of the companv until 1 could examine them. They were not held as suspects, but. only so thev could aid our investigation investi-gation iis to the' cause of the fire; Later all were allowed to return to their homes. "About four thousand shells, all loaded load-ed with T. NT. T. ', but not as yet filled with shrapnel, were exploded. All the rest of the shells iu the plant were unloaded and there was no danger of a greater explosion. An estimate of the damage is hard to make at this time, but t do uot believe it will exceed ex-ceed $50,000." The man killed was Theodore Jacob-sen, Jacob-sen, chief of the company's guards. The shells continued to explode for more than an hour and the noise was heard for miles, causing the belief here and elsewhere that the forts of the artillery district of the Delaware were firing upon hostile craft. Some of the shells fell iu the outskirts out-skirts of New Castle, a mile north of the plant. Firemen were unable to go near the burning building until the shells ceased exploding. The three-inch loading house where the fire started was completely destroyed de-stroyed together with the store house under the same roof. It was a wood and tile building with a steel frame about 200 feet square. It will be rebuilt re-built at once. |