Syracuse, NY Gunpowder Explosion, Aug 1841

FATAL EXPLOSION -- THIRTY LIVES LOST.

We learn from slips forwarded by the editors of the New York Herald and Sun, that on Friday night a fire broke out at Syracuse (N.Y.) in a carpenter's shop near the Oswego Canal. It spread with great rapidity and the building was soon enveloped in flames.
Crowds of citizens flocked to the scene, and soon after a great number had collected, a barrel of gunpowder which had been placed in the shop, exploded, and sent death and destruction all around.
As near as could be ascertained, upwards of thirty persons were killed outright, and no less than fifty wounded, some very seriously, and perhaps fatally.
From ten to fifteen were so mangled and cut to pieces that it was impossible to recognize them.
Every exertion was immediately made to relieve the sufferers.
Balt. Amer.

From the New York Herald.
FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE TERRIBLE GUNPOWDER EXPLOSION IN SYRACUSE -- EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE.

We have received slips from Albany, Utica and Syracuse, giving us further particulars of the dreadful appalling disaster, which has thrown Syracuse and the nieghboring towns into the deepest gloom.
It appears that the fire broke out last Friday night, in a wooden building situated on the tow path of the Oswego Canal near the County Clerk's Office and occupied as a carpenter's shop. It also appears that from ten to fifteen, and some say twenty-five legs of powder had been stowed therin by MALCOLM and HUDSON. It was not known to the inhabitants, however, that this powder was in the building when they rushed to the fire, and hence the great destruction of life.
Soon after the people had collected, alarm was given that powder was stowed in the shop. "Powder ! Powder ! There is powder in the building !" But this cry had but a momentary effect on the crowd. The mass moved back a step, then stopped, and in a few moments the twenty-five kegs of powder blew up with one explosion, scattering fragments of the buildings and limbs of human bodies in every direction.
In three seconds the noise of the explosion ceased, and was succeeded by a death-like silence for another moment. Then the air was filled with heart rending groans and frantic screams, never so painful and appalling. All who have ever witnessed a gunpowder explosion and heard the groans of the dying and wounded, can easily imagine what must have been the sight, the scene that was presented to the surviving inhabitants of Syracuse on that fatal night.

Continued on Page 2.