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Show : f Carelessness of Workman Work-man Causes Disaster at Frankford Plant THREE ARE KILLED Second Fatal Explosion to Occur Within Past Five Months. PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 8. Three workmen are known to have been killed and twenty-three persons badly injured in an explosion at tho Frank-ford Frank-ford arsenal here today. According to workers, the explosion was accidental, acciden-tal, there being nothing to indicate that it was caused by an outside agency. Two of tho twenty-three injured in-jured are young women. Major Montgomery, commandant of the arsenal, and his aids are investi-i investi-i gating the explosion and decline to 'make any statement until they have completed their inquiry. Carelessness ! of a workman, it was believed, was the cause of the accident. The explosion occurred in one of three small buildings known as detonating de-tonating dry rooms, where the primer caps for three and six inch shells and small arms cartridges are dried. The building in question has its walls packed with cinders and every .precaution .precau-tion was taken to prevent accidents. Fire Follows Explosion. Fire followed the explosion and spread to several other small buildings build-ings known as the artillery assembly unit. In these there were three and six inch shells, but prompt work of arsenal employees and city firemen saved the buildings and their contents from destruction. Today's explosion was the second fatal one to occur within the past five months. Two men were killed by the bursting of a shrapnel fuse in the high explosives building last April. Three investigations were under way soon after today's explosion, in which federal officials, tho police anu coroner participated. |