Wilmington, DE DuPont Powder Works Explosion, Dec 1898

BODIES BLOWN 100 YARDS.

Fatal Explosion in the Dupont Powder Works at Wilmington, Del.

WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 9. - Three men were killed and eight injured, three of them probably fatally, by the explosion of a press mill and four grinding mills in the Hagley yard of the Dupond Powder Works a few minutes after 10 o'clock to-day.

The dead are Robert McIllhenny, John Wright, and John Moore. The following were injured: Thomas McCann, John Mulhern, Samuel Stewart, Thomas Knox, James McLaughlin, and Michael Maloney. Of the injured men, Stewart, McCann, and Mulhern are in a serious condition. Immediately after the explosion the telephones were brought into service, and every Wilmington physician who could be communicated with was summoned to the scene of the explosion to renter aid to the wounded.

The explosion occurred in the press room of the Hagley or lower yard works. A carload of powder that was being wheeled into the room was accidentally overturned, and the car wheels running into the loose powder caused a friction that set the powder afire. The explosions quickly followed, all the powder that was in the press room going off in the five successive detonations. The press mill was wrecked.

The force of the explosion carried portions of the bodies across Brandywine Creek, a distance of 100 yards from the mill.

The New York Times, New York, NY10 Dec 1898
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$2,000 for a Powder Works Victim.

WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 11. - Thomas McCann, aged thirty years, who was burned in the explosion at the Dupont Powder Works Friday morning, died to-night of his injuries. Thursday night McCann joined a benefit society, paying $1 initiation fee, and his family will receive $2,000 from the society to-morrow morning.

The New York Times, New York, NY 12 Dec 1898
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!